- NY State Voters Want Congestion Pricing Eliminated, 40-33%; New York City Voters Want It to Remain, 42-35%; Downstate Suburbanites Say Eliminate, 48-30%
- Trump Job Approval Rating Drops 8 Points, While Favorability Little Changed; His Job Approval Is Better on Specific Issues, with a 54-37% Majority Approving of His Efforts to Combat the Flow of Fentanyl into the Country
- Voters Overwhelmingly Oppose Making Canada the 51st State and Owning & Developing Gaza; Strong Support for Making English the Official US Language
Loudonville, NY. In a hypothetical 2026 Democratic primary, Governor Kathy Hochul has the support of 46% of Democrats, with a commanding lead over Lt. Governor Antonio Delgado, 11%, and Rep. Ritchie Torres, 10%.Hochul’s favorability (40-50%) and overall job approval (46-48%) ratings are little changed from last month. On three specific issues – protecting constitutional rights, ensuring access to quality, affordable healthcare, and making New York safer – Hochul has a positive job approval rating, but on making New York more affordable, she’s underwater by 11 points, according to a Siena College poll of New York State registered voters.
More voters side with President Donald Trump and say congestion pricing should be eliminated, 40%, than say it should remain, as Hochul does, 33%. Trump’s favorability rating, 39-57%, is little changed from last month, but his overall job approval rating, 42-55% is down from 46-51% last month. When it comes to combatting fentanyl, voters approve of the job Trump is doing 54-37%. Voters oppose making Canada the 51st state, 68-11%, and owning and redeveloping Gaza, 58-15%. They do support making English the US’s official language, 57-27%.
“Although Hochul’s favorability rating continues to remain in stubbornly negative territory, where it has been since February last year, her overall job approval rating is close to the breakeven mark,” Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg said. “Two-thirds of Democrats approve of the job Hochul is doing as Governor, however, 79% of Republicans and 59% of independents disapprove. Currently, 34% of voters say they would re-elect Hochul, while 56% want ‘someone else.’ Among Democrats, they would re-elect Hochul 51-40%.
“Strong majorities of voters approve of the job she is doing to protect New Yorkers’ constitutional rights and ensuring access to quality, affordable healthcare, and a narrow plurality approves her efforts to make New York safer,” Greenberg said. “But a majority disapproves of her efforts to make the state more affordable.”
“On each of these issues, a majority or plurality of Democrats approve of the job that Hochul’s doing, while a majority of Republicans and a majority or plurality of independents disapprove of the job she’s doing on most of the issues, except independents are split on protecting constitutional rights and access to healthcare,” Greenberg said.
Hochul Has Commanding Early Lead in Potential Primary for Dems; Lawler Leads Blakeman with Reps
“While Hochul’s favorability and job approval ratings remain negative, among Democrats her favorability and job approval ratings are decidedly positive. Factor that in with two largely unknown potential opponents, even among Democrats – Delgado and Torres – and it is easy to see why Hochul holds a commanding early lead among registered Democrats in a potential June 2026 gubernatorial primary,” Greenberg said.
Delgado’s overall favorability rating is 19-16%, with 65% not knowing or having an opinion about him. Among Democrats, Delgado’s favorability rating is 26-10-64%. Torres’ favorability rating with all voters is 18-15-67%, and with Democrats, 27-14-59%. Republican Rep. Mike Lawler has a 18-19-63% favorability rating among all voters and a 18-14-68% rating among Republicans. Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman has a 12-14-74% favorability rating among all voters and a 15-16-69% rating with Republicans.
“Not surprisingly, the big winner in a potential 2026 Republican gubernatorial primary is ‘don’t know,’ 60%, given two potential candidates who are largely unknown to New York Republicans,” Greenberg said. “Among Republicans ready to take an early position, Lawler leads Blakeman 25-13%.”
Plurality Takes Trump’s Side Over Hochul’s and Wants Congestion Pricing Eliminated
“A plurality of voters wants to see congestion pricing eliminated, as Trump has called for. Pluralities of New York City voters and Democrats want congestion pricing to remain, Hochul’s position,” Greenberg said. “In June 2024, voters approved of Hochul’s temporary halt of congestion pricing 45-23%. In December, voters opposed Hochul’s announced reimposition of the congestion pricing tolls, 51-29%.
“Having one-third of voters statewide supporting the continuation of congestion pricing is the best congestion pricing has done in a Siena College poll,” Greenberg said. “Additionally, support currently trails opposition by seven points, when it was 22 points in both December and June 2024.”
Trump Job Approval Falls a Little; Specific Issues Job Approval Largely Better than Overall Job Approval
“While Trump’s favorability rating barely moved since last month, his overall job approval rating took a little hit since February, largely as a result of Republican approval ‘falling’ from 86-10% approval last month to 78-20% approval this month,” Greenberg said. “His approval rating also fell in the downstate suburbs, from 58-41% last month to 46-51% today.”
“Trump’s overall job approval rating may be 13 points underwater, and he gets similar negative grades for unifying Americans, enhancing America’s reputation abroad, and reducing the cost of living, but a majority of voters approve of the job he’s doing to combat the flow of fentanyl into the US,” Greenberg said. “Voters are evenly divided on whether they approve or disapprove of Trump’s actions to fix the country’s immigration system.
“Democrats disapprove of the job Trump is doing on each of these issues and three-quarters or more of Republicans approve of the job he’s doing on each issue,” Greenberg said. “Independents approve of the job Trump is doing on six of the issues and they are closely divided on two others, unifying Americans and enhancing America’s reputation.”
“Trump’s executive order making English the official language of the United States is supported by New Yorkers better than two-to-one, 57-27%, with overwhelming support from Republicans and independents, while Democrats are closely divided,” Greenberg said. “On four other issues an overwhelming majority of Democrats and a majority or plurality of all voters oppose each.
“Even Republicans are not with Trump on making Canada the 51st state, opposed by 68% of all voters, or owning and redeveloping Gaza into the ‘Riviera of the Middle East,’ opposed by 58% of all voters,” Greenberg said. “When it comes to significant federal workforce cuts and taking back the Panama Canal, at least 60% of Democrats oppose each, at least 60% of Republicans support each, as do a plurality of independents, 38% in both cases.”
Odds & Ends
- Three years into the war between Russia and Ukraine, New Yorkers continue to overwhelmingly view Vladimir Putin unfavorably, 8-81%, only slightly changed from 6-88% in March 2022, just after the start of the war. On the other side, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has a 49-33% favorability rating, down from 70-13% in March 2022. While Zelenskyy continues to be viewed favorably by more than two-thirds of Democrats, he is viewed unfavorably by 57% of Republicans (who had viewed him favorably three years ago, 71-15%) and a plurality, 39% of independents (who viewed him favorably, 67-12%, in March 2022).
- The US Supreme Court is viewed favorably by 39% and unfavorably by 47%. In February 2024, the Court had a 44-45% favorability rating. Nearly two-thirds of Democrats view SCOTUS unfavorably, while two-thirds of Republicans view it favorably, and independents are closely divided.
- Democrats in Congress have a 45-48% favorability rating, nearly identical to 45-47% last June. They’re viewed favorably by Democrats, 71-25%, and unfavorably by 79% of Republicans and 61% of independents. Republicans in Congress have a worse favorability rating, 34-56%, which is up from June’s 29-62%. They’re viewed favorably by 76% of Reps, and unfavorably by 83% of Dems and 43% of independents, a plurality.
- New York City Mayor Eric Adams has a 22-55% favorability rating. It’s 23-63% among Democrats and 30-62% among New York City voters. It was 29-37% back in August 2023.
- Former Governor and current NYC mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo has a 37-51% favorability rating, up from 32-60% in March 2022. It’s 51-39% with Democrats and 48-41% with New York City voters.
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This Siena College Poll was conducted March 2-6, 2025, among 806 NYS Registered Voters. Of the 806 respondents, 506 were contacted through a dual frame (landline and cell phone) mode (218 completed via text to web) and 300 respondents were drawn from a proprietary online panel (Lucid). Telephone calls were conducted in English and respondent sampling was initiated by asking for the youngest person in the household. Telephone sampling was conducted via a stratified dual frame probability sample of landline and
cell phone telephone numbers weighted to reflect known population patterns. The landline telephone sample was obtained from ASDE and the cell phone sample was obtained from MSG. Data from collection modes was statistically adjusted by age, party by region, race/ethnicity, education, and gender to ensure representativeness. It has an overall margin of error of +/- 4.3 percentage points including the design effects resulting from weighting. The Siena College Research Institute, directed by Donald Levy, Ph.D., conducts political, economic, social, and cultural research primarily in NYS. SCRI, an independent, non-partisan research institute, subscribes to the American Association of Public Opinion Research Code of Professional Ethics and Practices. For more information, call Steve Greenberg at (518) 469-9858. For survey crosstabs: www.Siena.edu/SCRI/SNY.
