New York Gov. Kathy Hochul hit her lowest favorability and job approval rating ever, according to a new Siena College poll of registered voters released Thursday morning.
The poll found Hochul’s favorability rating at 38-49%, down a little from 38-46% in May, and her job approval rating at 44-50%, down from 45-46%.
That said, small pluralities, 40-36%, think Hochul demonstrates honesty and integrity and works hard for the people, the poll found, but larger pluralities, 44-34%, said she doesn’t care about people like them, and 44-36% said she doesn’t provide decisive leadership.
“When it comes to various Hochul characteristics, the partisan divide remains between Democrats on one side and Republicans joined by independents on the other side,” Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg said in a statement. “Democrats say Hochul cares about people like them, works hard, is a decisive leader, and honest. Republicans and independents don’t agree.”
Greenberg said Hochul continues to have a two-to-one favorability rating among Democrats and even stronger job approval rating but is viewed unfavorably by 81% of Republicans and 61% of independents, while 84% of Republicans and 63% of independents disapprove of the job she’s doing as governor.
According to the poll, 45-23% of voters across party lines supported Hochul’s recent decision to delay the congestion pricing toll plan in New York City. In terms of legislation, a strong bipartisan majority, 70-12%, said the state Legislature was right to pass a bill to ban social media platforms from providing addictive algorithm-based feeds to minors without parental consent. Voters also think the Legislature should have passed both the Plastics Reduction Act, 58-31%, and the NY Heat Act, 58-26%.
“By 51-17%, voters say the recently concluded legislative session didn’t succeed in passing laws to improve the quality of life in New York,” Greenberg said. “It’s unclear if that’s related to the Legislature not passing either the Heat Act or the Plastics Reduction Act, but both are popular with New York voters and they would have liked the Legislature to pass them. Each had the support of two-thirds of Democrats, a majority of independents and a plurality of Republicans.”
When it comes to the upcoming federal elections, President Joe Biden has a 42-53% favorability rating among New York voters, down from 45-50% in May, his lowest favorability rating ever. His job approval rating fell to 45-53%, down a little from last month. Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump has a 37-59% favorability rating, down from 39-56% in May. Currently, Biden leads Trump by 8 points in New York, which is little changed from May or April. In 2020, Biden defeated Trump by 23 points in the state.
“While Biden maintains the support of three-quarters of Democrats, Trump has support from 85% of Republicans and leads Biden 45-28% with independents,” Greenberg said. “A gender gap has reopened as men support Trump 46-42% and women favor Biden 51-33%. White voters are evenly divided. And while Biden has a commanding lead with non-white voters, Trump garners support from 29% of Black and 26% of Latino voters.”
Two-thirds of New York voters say they plan to watch next week’s debate between Trump and Biden, the earliest general election presidential debate in memory.
U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who is up for reelection this year, has a 40-31% favorability rating among New York voters, the poll found, which is little changed from last month, and 42% say they would vote to re-elect Gillibrand while 42% say they would prefer “someone else.”
New York voters continue to favor Democrats for Congress over Republicans, 50-35%, the poll found, little changed from May. They gave Democrats in Congress a closely divided favorability rating, 45-47%, and Republicans a very unfavorable rating of 29-62%.
The Siena College poll was conducted June 12-17 among 805 registered voters.