Andrew Cuomos comfortable lead over Zohran Mamdani cut by 50% in home stretch before Dem mayoral primary: poll

Surging socialist Zohran Mamdani is making up ground in the Democratic mayoral primary — cutting frontrunner Andrew Cuomo’s lead in half from just a month ago, according to a poll released Wednesday.In the ranked-choice voting contest, Cuomo prevails 55% to 45% against Mamdani in the 7th round, the new Marist College Institute for Public Opinion survey found.That’s a big drop from a poll Marist conducted in May, when Cuomo led Mamdani 60% to 40% after all the other candidates were eliminated and second preference votes transferred to the two finalists.The findings come with early voting in full swing — and less than a week before the June 24 primary day finale.One of the big changes in the poll was Mamdani boosting his support among Latino voters, jumping to 41% from just 20% last month.By comparison, Cuomo’s support with Latino voters dipped to 36%, from 41% in last month’s Marist poll.“That was the surprise in the poll — absolutely,” Marist polling director Lee Miringoff said.Fellow Democratic socialist Rep.Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez endorsed Mamdani since the last poll, possibly lifting the 33-year Queens assemblyman with younger Latino voters, Miringoff surmised.The rank-choice results exclude the 11% of voters who are still undecided, down from 17% in May.No other candidate broke 10% among likely Democratic voters in the first round in ranked choice voting: City Comptroller Brad Lander got 8%; Council Speaker Adrienne Adams 7%; former city Comptroller Scott Stringer 4%, and Brooklyn state Sen.

Zellnor Myrie and former Bronx Assemblyman Michael Blake 2% apiece.The survey of 1,350 like Democratic voters was conducted from June 9-12, before last week’s second and final mayoral debate.“It’s truly a two person race,” Miringoff said.Cuomo started out with the support of 43% of Democrats in the first round, followed by Mamdani with 31%, the poll showed.When undecideds were included, Cuomo got the backing of 38% of likely Democratic primary vot...