“Hochul’s lead is driven by strong support among New York Democrats, 84% to 8%, but independents break for the Republican, Blakeman, 55% to 34%, a notable contrast with other Emerson statewide polls this cycle, in which independent voters have generally favored the Democratic candidate,” Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, said.
Governor Hochul holds a 40% job approval rating and 46% disapproval, while 15% are neutral.
President Trump holds a 35% job approval rating and 57% disapproval, while 7% are neutral.
Senator Chuck Schumer holds a 30% approval rating, while 50% disapprove of the job he is doing as Senator. Thirty-three percent approve of Senator Gillibrand, while 38% disapprove.
A plurality (47%) of New York voters approve of the job Zohran Mamdani is doing as mayor of New York City, while 41% disapprove, and 13% are neutral.
- A majority (64%) of New York voters under 40 approve of Mamdani, while a majority of voters over 60 (54%) disapprove of the New York City mayor.
Thirty-four percent of New York voters think the economy is the top issue facing New York, followed by housing affordability at 17%, threats to democracy at 13%, crime at 12%, and immigration at 10%.
Twenty-eight percent say the cost of everyday goods is their biggest economic concern, 12% the cost of housing, 12% taxes, 9% retirement/social security, 8% the cost of healthcare, and 7% the price of gasoline and electricity, respectively.
Half of New York voters (50%) oppose the U.S. military action against Iran, while a third (33%) support it, and 17% are unsure.
A majority of voters, 56%, support Governor Hochul’s one-year statewide moratorium on new discretionary state environmental permits for large-scale data centers; 26% oppose it, and 18% are neutral.
A majority of voters in New York (59%) are very excited to vote in the upcoming Midterm Elections, 27% are somewhat excited, 11% are not too excited, and 4% are not at all excited.
- Voters in New York are generally less excited about Midterm voting compared to national voters: in the September Emerson national poll, 71% of voters were very excited, 20% somewhat excited, 7% not too excited, and 3% not at all excited.
Among those “very excited” to vote, 58% support Hochul and 35% Blakeman. Of those “somewhat excited,” 49% support Hochul and 46% Blakeman.
Methodology
The Emerson College Polling/PIX11 News New York survey was conducted October 3-5, 2026. The overall sample of New York likely voters, n=900, has a credibility interval, similar to a poll’s margin of error (MOE), of +/- 3.3 percent. The data sets were weighted by gender, education, party registration, and region based on U.S. Census parameters and voter file data.
It is important to remember that subsets based on demographics, such as gender, age, education, and race/ethnicity, carry with them higher credibility intervals, as the sample size is reduced. Survey results should be understood within the poll’s range of scores, and with a confidence interval of 95% a poll will fall outside the range of scores 1 in 20 times.
Data was collected by contacting registered voters from a voter file provided by Aristotle using MMS text-to-web. Additional panel interviews were provided by PureSpectrum. The survey was hosted on QuestionPro.
All respondents were recruited using customized links that prevent responses from anyone outside of the poll’s sample frame. Panel responses were matched to the Aristotle voter file using respondents’ full name and ZIP code. The survey was administered using QuestionPro, and the survey was offered in English.
All questions asked in this survey with exact wording and order, along with full results, demographics, and cross tabulations can be found below. The poll was sponsored by PIX11.
Read the entire poll below: