Radical socialist Zohran Mamdani’s lead over Andrew Cuomo has narrowed to just 6.6 points — the slimmest edge he’s held since July, according to a stunning new poll out Saturday.
The new AtlasIntel survey has Democratic candidate Mamdani leading the field with 40.6%, and the former New York governor, a registered Democrat running as an independent, clawing up to 34% just days before Tuesday’s election.
“The gap is closing fast — we can feel it on the ground everywhere from the Bronx to Staten Island. At this rate, we win the race. Keep going strong,” Cuomo said.
Zohran Mamdani is still in the lead, but with 41 percent, followed by Andrew Cuomo’s 34 percent, a new AtlasIntel poll shows. James Messerschmidt“Six points in this election is nothing,” the former governor later told reporters while campaigning Saturday in Brownsville, Brooklyn.
He also said New Yorkers have done a good job educating themselves about Mamdani’s pie-in-the-sky campaign promises — including free bus service and city-run grocery stores — that the Democratic nominee wouldn’t have the power to deliver if elected mayor.
The poll shows Cuomo closing the gap on Mamdani. Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Post
“What has happened is, in the primary, Zohran got away with his TikTok band, and a smile, whatever he said, he smiled, and he had his slogans, ‘Freeze the rent,’ ‘Free buses,’ ‘Free food,’ and that was enough,” said Cuomo.
“What has happened since is people have [found] out what he’s about, and there is no free food, and there are no free buses, and he can’t raise corporate taxes statewide and dedicate it to New York [City]. That can’t happen.”
Andrei Roman, CEO of Brazil-based AtlasIntel, said Cuomo’s embattled past as governor may have limited his broader appeal — but Mamdani’s far-left policies and anti-Israel, anti-cop rhetoric has motivated Big Apple voters.
GOP candidate Curtis Sliwa is at 24 percent support, according to a new poll. Janet Mayer/INSTARimages.com“From not being inspirational to being really hated and terrifying people — that’s a major difference. That’s what’s happening with Mamdani,” he said.
“I think Cuomo’s chance in this election is to mobilize an anti-Mamdani vote within mostly the moderate Democratic base that voted for him in the primary but also with independents and Republicans and also mobilize a strategic vote by some of [Republican candidate Curtis] Sliwa’s voters,” he added.
The new poll also gives Sliwa his best showing, at 24.1%, his high water mark since a HarrisX poll in July that had him at 22%.
The results come days after a pair of polls showed Mamdani with a comfortable lead.
A Fox News poll released Thursday had Mamdani leading Cuomo by 47% to 31%, with Sliwa at just 15%, while an Emerson College poll had him leading by 50% to 25%, with Sliwa at 21%.
Mamdani leads by an average of 14.5% in the latest Real Clear Politics polling average, putting him on a glidepath into Gracie Mansion.
The average has him at 45%, followed by Cuomo at 31% and Sliwa at 17%.
The new Atlas poll reveals the impact of Sliwa’s run, amid calls for him to drop out.
If it were a two-man contrast between Cuomo and Mamdani, Cuomo would lead 50% to 42%, according to the poll.
Mamdani, who attended an event in Harlem on Saturday at the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, told reporters afterward he’s not sweating a Cuomo upset.
“I’m not worried at all,” he boasted. “I continue to be confident, but I never let that confidence become complacency.”
The results come as thousands of New Yorkers have already made up their minds, with nearly half a million of them already casting early ballots, a big uptick from 2021, according to the City Board of Elections.
The AtlasIntel poll had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
It comes a day after Cuomo campaigned in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, and told supporters there is “no way” Sliwa can win, saying he “can only make Zohran Mamdani win.”
