OAN Staff Blake Wolf
9:49 AM – Monday, June 23, 2025
New Emerson College polling figures give New York City socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani the lead over former Governor Andrew Cuomo in the city’s Democrat mayoral primary.
33-year-old Mamdani, a Ugandan immigrant and self-described Democrat socialist, is now leading Cuomo in polling released Monday when factoring in the city’s “ranked choice system.”
The ranked choice system allows voters to select their top five candidates in order of preference, meaning if their top candidate gets eliminated, their vote gets redistributed to their next most favorable candidate.
35% of respondents favor Cuomo, compared to 32% favoring Mamdani, giving Cuomo a 3 point lead. However, since no candidate was able to garner over 50% of the vote needed to secure an outright win in the hypothetical polling, the ranked system kicked in, giving Mamdani the projected victory with a 52% share of the vote compared to Cuomo’s 48%.
“In the ranked-choice simulation, Mamdani gains 18 points compared to Cuomo’s 12, putting him ahead in the final round for the first time in an Emerson poll,” stated Spencer Kimball, the executive director of Emerson College Polling.
“Over five months, Mamdani’s support has surged from 1% to 32%, while Cuomo finishes near where he began,” Kimball added.
Zohran is running on the promise to “freeze the rent” for over two million New Yorkers who live in rent stabilized apartments.
Critics argue that freezing NYC’s rent-stabilized apartments will discourage landlords from investing in repairs or improvements, leading to the deterioration of building conditions while also discouraging the development of new housing as developers brace for future rent freezes.
A 2019 study conducted by Stanford university, titled “The Effects of Rent Control Expansion on Tenants, Landlords, and Inequality: Evidence from San Francisco” found that rent control reduces the supply of available affordable housing as tenants were 20% more likely to stay at their address.
The study, which analyzed the San Francisco rent control expansion in 1994, found that the reduction in affordable housing led to a 5.6% citywide rent increase, costing renters $2.9 billion annually — suggesting that long-term market distortion benefits a small subset of tenants while costing the majority.
Meanwhile, the Cuomo campaign has dismissed the recent polling data, stating: “This is an outlier: Every other credible poll in this election — including two released last week — has shown Governor Cuomo with a double digit lead, which is exactly where this election will end tomorrow.”
“Between now and then we will continue to fight for every vote like he will fight for every New Yorker as Mayor,” added Cuomo campaign spokesman Rich Azzopardi.
Mamdani is backed by Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.), while Cuomo is endorsed by the likes of Bill Clinton, former NYC mayor Mike Bloomberg, and Democrat Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.).
NYC’s mayoral Democrat primary election will take place on June 24th, with early voting beginning on June 14th. The general election will take place at the beginning of November.
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