{"id":451174,"date":"2025-12-16T15:36:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T15:36:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/451174\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T15:36:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T15:36:17","slug":"hochul-holds-strong-lead-despite-half-of-new-yorkers-wanting-a-new-governor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/451174\/","title":{"rendered":"Hochul holds strong lead despite half of New Yorkers wanting a new governor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gov. Kathy Hochul still has a solid lead over her most likely 2026 Republican challengers \u2014 despite half of New Yorkers saying they want a new governor, according to a new poll released Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Only 37% of New York voters polled by Siena University last week said they want to reelect Hochul, with a whopping 50% saying they want someone <\/a>else.<\/p>\n

Still, Hochul holds significant leads<\/a> over her likely GOP challengers \u2013 North Country Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, according to the poll.<\/p>\n

Gov. Kathy Hochul holds a 19-point lead over Rep. Elise Stefanik and a 25-point lead of Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman. Matthew McDermott<\/p>\n

In theoretical head-to-head matchups, Hochul beats Stefanik 49% to 30% and Blakeman 50% to 25%, according to Siena.<\/p>\n

\u201cClosing out 2025 \u2013 six months from the primaries and 11 months till the general election \u2013 Hochul maintains a solid 19-point lead over Stefanik, with one in five voters being undecided, and currently has a larger 25-point lead over recent entrant Blakeman,\u201d Siena Poll Spokesperson Steven Greenberg said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHochul has the support of more than three-quarters of Democrats against either Republican. Stefanik leads among Republicans 82-7%, while Blakeman\u2019s lead is 73-7%. With independents, Hochul leads Blakeman by 10 points and Stefanik by seven points,\u201d Greenberg added.<\/p>\n

Stefanik would also beat Blakeman in a head-to-head primary \u2013 48% to 17%.<\/p>\n

Stefanik currently beats Blakeman easily in a head-to-head matchup, per Siena\u2019s December poll. REUTERS<\/p>\n

Blakeman, who only made his entry to the race official last week, struggles with name recognition compared with Stefanik. A whopping 70% of voters polled don\u2019t know who Blakeman is, compared with 44% unfamiliar with Stefanik.<\/p>\n

However, the Nassau pol shows bright spots for Blakeman in the critical suburbs of\u00a0Suffolk, Nassau, Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties. Blakeman has a positive\u00a0 22% to 19% net favorability rating in the suburbs where Stefanik has a negative 20% to 27% rating in those counties.<\/p>\n

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman announced he\u2019s running for Governor last week. Michael Nigro<\/p>\n

On the Democratic primary side, Hochul continues to dominate her only serious primary challenger, her estranged Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado. Hochul would beat Delgado in a one-on-one matchup 56% to 13% according to Siena\u2019s most recent poll.<\/p>\n

Hochul also saw a rare \u2014 yet slight \u2014 positive favorability in December\u2019s poll with 43% of respondents rating her favorably compared with 41% unfavorable. It\u2019s one of only three monthly polls this year where Siena has shown Hochul with a positive favorability.<\/p>\n

Still, that\u2019s an improvement from the Siena poll a year ago, which had Hochul at 39% favorable to 49% unfavorable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Kathy Hochul still has a solid lead over her most likely 2026 Republican challengers \u2014 despite half…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":451175,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,22807,22808,5371,5248,405,403,5226,5225,5228,54608,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-451174","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-bruce-blakeman","10":"tag-elise-stefanik","11":"tag-kathy-hochul","12":"tag-metro","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-newyork","16":"tag-newyorkcity","17":"tag-ny","18":"tag-ny-governor-election-2026","19":"tag-nyc","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-us-news","26":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115729988538630471","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451174\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}