The governor was viewed favorably by 67 percent of Democrats, while 28 percent hold an unfavorable view of him. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images Cuomo ahead of Nixon by 35 points in latest Siena poll

ALBANY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo is much more popular among New York Democrats than his celebrated primary challenger Cynthia Nixon, according to a Siena College Research Institute poll released Wednesday.

Cuomo led Nixon 61-26 overall in the poll, and he came out on top in each of the 23 demographic categories broken out in the poll. Self-identified liberals preferred Cuomo by 65-24, African-Americans, 74-17, and women, 63-26. Suburban voters, who have served as the best bellwether in most recent Democratic statewide primaries, favored Cuomo 76-13.


The governor was viewed favorably by 67 percent of Democrats, while 28 percent hold an unfavorable view of him. Nixon’s comparable numbers polled at 40-26.

“Nixon has a lot of catching up to do to make this race competitive,” said Siena spokesman Steve Greenberg. “Cuomo is well-known and well-liked by New York Democrats. Although similar percentages of Democrats view Cuomo and Nixon unfavorably, Cuomo has a significantly larger percentage of Democrats viewing him favorably.”

The results are slightly better for Cuomo than those in the last Siena poll, conducted a few weeks after Nixon launched her campaign in March. The governor led her 58-27 at the time. This strong showing lends some credence to an argument made by the governor’s staffers that a Quinnipiac poll released in early May showing Cuomo with a relatively slim 22-point lead was an outlier amid a flurry of polls that showed him comfortably ahead.

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However, the Siena poll was based on a survey of Democrats likely to vote in November — in other words, it was not restricted to the small subset of them who are likely to vote in the primary. While Nixon clearly has a lot of ground to make up in any situation, she could be helped if her supporters are more eager to vote in September than Cuomo’s.

Republican candidate Marc Molinaro, meanwhile, was viewed favorably by an 18-11 margin.

In a general election matchup, the governor would top Molinaro 56-37. That could be a sign there’s the same degree of support for — but more opposition to — Cuomo than in June 2014, when he led Republican Rob Astorino 57-21 in a Siena poll.

Nixon led Molinaro 46-35.

Further down the ballot, every other state-level candidate suffered from a lack of name recognition.

Comptroller Tom DiNapoli was viewed favorably by a 32-15 margin, but in his 12th year in office, more than half of voters don’t have an opinion of him. Republican candidate Jonathan Trichter was unknown by 91 percent of respondents, and only 5 percent had a favorable view of him.

More people had a favorable view of former Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (21 percent) than any of the candidates vying to succeed him. Democrats Tish James (20-10) and Zephyr Teachout (17-12) were far ahead of Leecia Eve (5-4).

James led a three-way primary matchup with 28 percent of respondents to Teachout’s 18 percent and Eve’s 4 percent. (The poll was conducted before Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney formally entered the race.)

And only 11 percent of voters had an opinion of Republican attorney general candidate Keith Wofford, half of whom viewed him favorably.

Siena spoke with 745 likely general election voters from June 4 through 7, and the poll has a margin of error of 3.7 points.

View the crosstabs here.