Cuomo Holds 36-Point Lead Over Nixon in New Poll

ALBANY, N.Y. — With less than two months before the Democratic primary in New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has maintained a formidable lead over his opponent, Cynthia Nixon, with large, double-digit margins in all demographic groups, according to a poll released Wednesday.

The Quinnipiac University poll of 415 registered Democrats found that Cuomo, who is seeking a third term in November, leads Nixon, an actress and educational activist making her first run for public office, by 59 percent to 23 percent. That 36-point margin is a marked increase from a 22-point lead he held in a university poll released in May.

Nixon has been steadily picking up endorsements, many from the same progressive networks that backed Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in her upset primary victory in June over Rep. Joseph Crowley. But that support has not seemed to move the needle among the poll respondents.

Among Democrats, Cuomo, 60, leads among men, women and white voters, with his strongest support among blacks and Latinos.

The university also surveyed a wider sample of nearly 1,000 voters, looking at a possible six-way general election and including candidates like former Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner, who is running as an independent; the Green Party’s Howie Hawkins and Libertarian Larry Sharpe.

In that situation, Cuomo beats Marcus Molinaro, the Republican candidate for governor, by 20 points, 43 to 23 percent. Nixon, who could run on the line of a third-party, the Working Families Party, which endorsed her in April, receives 13 percent, with Sharpe, Hawkins and Miner all polling in the low single digits. In a two-way race, Cuomo leads Molinaro, the Dutchess County executive, by a wider margin, with 57 percent favoring the governor to Molinaro’s 31 percent.

The poll was conducted after the conviction of the governor’s former economic development guru, Alain Kaloyeros, but before Tuesday’s conviction of the former state Senate leader, Dean Skelos.

Cuomo’s rivals could be encouraged by one of the poll’s findings: The governor’s job approval rating had slipped to 49 percent from 54 percent in May. His favorability rating was also 49 percent.

“Polls of registered voters clearly aren’t capturing the kind of Democrats who have been turning out to vote in primaries — the most motivated, most progressive part of the base,” said Lauren Hitt, a Nixon campaign spokeswoman. “Joe Crowley’s poll had him up by 35 points. He lost by 15.”

Poll respondents gave Nixon a 27 percent favorability rating, with a 30 percent unfavorable rating; 40 percent of voters had yet to form an opinion.

The governor’s lead in the Democratic primary “was big and its gotten bigger,” said Mary Snow, a polling analyst for the university, who added that a majority of voters “prefer a candidate with experience in politics over a candidate who is new.”

The poll also found Letitia James, the New York City public advocate, leading in the Democratic primary race for state attorney general. James, Cuomo’s preferred candidate, is favored by 26 percent of voters, with Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney receiving 15 percent, and the Fordham law professor, Zephyr Teachout, receiving 12 percent. Leecia Eve, a former Clinton administration official, garnered 3 percent.

But the poll also found that 42 percent of respondents were still undecided, suggesting that the race was still wide open.

The poll was conducted with randomly selected registered voters, with about half reached via cellphone. The survey of Democrats had a margin of error of 6.2 percentage points, while the broader survey had a margin of error of 4.1 percentage points.