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Gov. Kathy Hochul has a commanding lead in a hypothetical 2026 Democratic primary, according to a Siena College poll released Monday.
According to the poll, the governor has the backing of 46% of Democrats, far above support levels of 11% for Lt. Governor Antonio Delgado and 10% for Rep. Ritchie Torres. Neither has announced they are running for the office.
Hochul’s overall favorability (40-50%) and job approval (46-48%) ratings saw little change from last month’s poll.
The governor maintains a positive job approval rating on three specific issues – protecting constitutional rights, ensuring access to quality, affordable health care and making New York safer, the poll found, but lags with a 52% disapproval rate in making New York more affordable.
“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,” Greenberg said.
Greenberg said the presence of “two largely unknown potential opponents” for Hochul is a major factor in the early positive numbers for the sitting governor’s chances of reelection.
According to the poll, Delgado’s overall favorability rating is 19, with 65% not knowing or having an opinion about him. Torres’ favorability rating with all voters is 18%, with two-thirds not having an opionin.
Turning to national politics, President Donald Trump’s overall job approval rating fell from 46% to 42% among New Yorkers, according to the poll.
According to the poll, Trump received negative grades for unifying Americans, enhancing America’s reputation abroad and reducing the cost of living, along with efforts to make Canada the 51st state.
Voters also came out evenly divided on whether they approve of Trump’s actions to fix the country’s immigration system, and a majority of voters approve of the job he’s doing to combat the flow of fentanyl into the U.S., the poll found.
“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.”
Greenberg said Trump’s executive order to make English the official language of the United States is supported by New Yorkers better than two-to-one, 57-27% and has seen overwhelming support from Republicans and independents. Democrats, however, are closely divided, the poll showed.
The Siena College poll was conducted March 2-6, 2025, among 806 New York state registered voters. It has an overall margin of error of +/- 4.3 percentage points.
