Joseph Spector

Albany Bureau Chief

ALBANY -- President Donald Trump's favorability rating in his home state hit its lowest level since he was elected, while Gov. Andrew Cuomo's popularity grew to its highest point in three years, a Siena College poll Thursday found.

The Republican president was viewed favorably by 30 percent of New York voters and unfavorably by 65 percent, down four percentage points from last month, the Albany-area polling institute said. Also, just 27 percent of voters gave Trump a positive job-performance rating.

Voters' views of Congress was even worse: New Yorkers gave Democrats in Congress a negative 21 percent to 77 percent job-performance rating, while GOP members of Congress had a negative 17 percent to 81 percent job-performance rating.

"New Yorkers' negative view of Washington goes far deeper than just the president. In fact, he might take solace in that as low as his overall job-performance rating is, the ratings for both Democrats and Republicans in Congress are even lower," Steven Greenberg, a spokesman for the Siena College poll, said in a statement.

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The views on Trump were fairly consistent across regions of the state, but were divided between political parties: Two thirds of Republicans had a positive view of the president, while 80 percent of Democrats had an unfavorable opinion, the Siena poll said.

Trump talked regularly during the campaign about the problems of upstate New York, but in the region, he was viewed favorably by just 33 percent of voters compared to 63 percent who had a negative opinion.

For Cuomo, his standing improved, Siena said.

Cuomo's favorability rating hit its highest level since June 2014, with 61 percent of voters having a positive view of the Democratic governor. In the New York City suburbs, Cuomo's favorability was 62 percent, and upstate it was 52 percent.

The poll found 53 percent of voters said they were prepared to re-elect him next year, compared to 36 percent who preferred someone else. Yet upstate, 50 percent preferred someone else.

Cuomo, who is considered a potential presidential candidate in 2020, had a positive 51 percent to 46 percent job-performance rating, essentially flipped from last month's Siena poll.

On eight issues, though, voters only gave his a positive job-performance rating on two of them: higher education and human rights.

He had a negative rating on six other issues: taxes, infrastructure, K-12 education, Medicaid, criminal justice and the economy.

"He is viewed favorably by nearly three-quarters of Democrats, 58 percent of independents, nearly two-thirds of downstaters and more than half of upstaters," Greenberg said.

"The dramatic net 13-point increase in his favorability rating was largely provided by independent and upstate voters."

New York has twice as many enrolled Democrats than Republicans.

On some national issues, New York voters said they would prefer that Congress keep and improve the Affordable Care Act rather than repeal and replace with the American Health Care Act approved by the GOP-controlled House earlier this month.

Sixty-eight percent of voters said they were concerned, including 50 percent who were "very concerned," about Russia's reported attempts to sway last year's presidential election.

Also, 61 percent of New York voters said the country is headed in the wrong direction.

As for New York, the Siena poll found 52 percent of voters said New York is headed on the right track.

The poll was conducted May 15-21 to 770 New York registered voters. It had a margin of error of 4 percentage points.