Democratic mayoral nominee and Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani led in yet another poll of the mayor’s race conducted by Emerson College/The Hill/Pix11. Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025.
Photo by Lloyd Mitchell
Yet another new public poll shows Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani dominating the current four-way race for City Hall and defeating leading rival Andrew Cuomo in a one-on-one matchup — the second in two days to reveal as much.
The Emerson College/PIX11/The Hill survey of 600 active city voters shows Mamdani ahead in the current field at 43%, a 15-point edge over Cuomo — the former Democratic governor running on an independent line. The poll was conducted between Sept. 7-8 and has a margin of error of +/- 3.9%.
Cuomo has 28% support, while Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa and incumbent Mayor Eric Adams — a Democrat running as an independent — have 10% and 8%, respectively. Nine percent remain undecided.
It comes a day after a Siena College/New York Times poll that showed Mamdani with a 23-point lead over Cuomo in the four-way contest, and defeating him by four points in a hypothetical head-to-head battle.
Mamdani, during an unrelated Wednesday morning Bronx news conference, said the poll shows that New Yorkers are “hungry for a different kind of politics.”
“They are hungry for a politics that puts working people first,” Mamdani told reporters. “We saw that over the course of the primary, where we went from 1% in the polls to winning that race by 13 points, with the most votes in New York City history. And we are seeing that right now.”
Mamdani added that his campaign has 60,000 volunteers and expects to soon have 90,000.
Poll trends aligning
The Emerson poll showed a similar trend to past surveys that Mamdani — a democratic socialist Assembly member — holds a huge advantage with younger voters, while Cuomo does better with their older counterparts.
“Mamdani has a 29-point lead over Cuomo among voters under 50, leading 49% to 20%, and that lead tightens to six points among voters over 50, leading 39% to 33%,” said Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, in a statement.
Mamdani also handily defeats all of his opponents in simulated one-on-one contests, the poll found.
While Cuomo comes the closest to the Assembly member in a theoretical two-person race, he still trails by 7 points (40% to 47%), with 13% undecided. Mamdani would win with just over 50% when facing either Adams or Sliwa in one-on-ones — with Adams nabbing 30% and Sliwa getting 28%.
The tested matchups come as both Adams and Sliwa are facing mounting pressure from centrist leaders, the city’s business community and, reportedly, the Trump administration to withdraw from the race to boost Cuomo’s chances of blocking Mamdani from City Hall.
Adams was reported to be in negotiations with the Trump administration and private sector firms over lucrative job offers as a prize for ending his campaign.
His spokesperson, Todd Shapiro, confirmed to reporters on Friday that the mayor met with Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, last Tuesday in Florida. The confab was reportedly to discuss posts within the Trump administration, which could include a position with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and an ambassadorship to Saudi Arabia.
Although Adams has forcefully denied that he is looking for other work, he previously signaled he was open to it in a statement last week: “I will always listen if called to serve our country.”
Trump has repeatedly said in recent days that he does not want Mamdani — whom he falsely labels “a communist” — to be mayor. The best chance of ensuring that outcome, Trump has said, would be narrowing the field to one candidate who could take on the frontrunner.
Trump’s aides are reportedly also weighing a job offer for Sliwa, though the GOP nominee has said he is not interested.
Spokespeople for Adams and Cuomo did not immediately return requests for comment on the Emerson poll.