The survey found Andrew Yang leads his opponents in every demographic. | Andrew Harnik / AP Photo
With just over two months to go before New Yorkers go to the polls to elect the Democratic candidate for mayor, Andrew Yang widens the gap over his rival Eric Adams.
A poll by Data For Progress, a national think tank, found that 26 percent of voters support Yang’s candidate – double the 13 percent who said they would support Brooklyn President Eric Adams . The news comes as several PACS are working to help Yang’s campaign further.
In the poll, Yang also found that Adams led 25 to 22 percent among black voters – a surprising number given the city’s political president in predominantly African-American parts of Brooklyn. Between March 21 and April 5, Data For Progress polled 1,007 likely voters through web and text interviews, which would not necessarily count the older New Yorkers Adams – a former state police officer and senator.
City Comptroller Scott Stringer, a Manhattan career politician, caught 11 percent of respondents and former City Hall attorney and MSNBC legal analyst Maya Wiley finished fourth with 10 percent. Every other candidate filled in single digits.
The survey, conducted in English, found that Yang led his opponents in every demographic: women, men, and voters who identified themselves as Asians, Hispanics, and whites. He was also the best choice for people with and without college degrees.
Yang, who took part in the race in January, dominated almost every news cycle with controversy as well as creative campaigns. He relentlessly promotes the return of New York City to Covid, providing incentives for commuters outside the city and emphasizing a desire to attract tourists back to the Big Apple. He attended a contest at the Yankee Stadium, promised a “key to the city” to the TurboVax creator, and made a show with his wife buying movie tickets when theaters reopened.
His windy style and quasi-celebrity status dwarfed the attention his opponents received when they introduced their own endorsements and policy proposals.
The new findings, which were the compilation of several polls conducted by Data for Progress recently, showed a greater lead for Yang. He was just 6 points ahead of Adams in a survey released last month by lobbying firm Fontas Advisors. According to the poll, half of the electorate is undecided – a trend that supports Data for Progress in another issue-based poll released earlier this week.
But when the question was asked differently, only 14 percent did not choose a candidate for first place, and another 4 percent said they support someone who is not listed.
The poll found that Yang also benefits from ranking votes – a system that will start in the city election this year. Thirty-one percent call him their second choice, compared to 13 percent for Adams and Stringer and 11 percent for Wiley. Adams picked him slightly in third place with 15 percent compared to Yang’s 14 percent.
“There’s going to be a lot of room for persuasion in this race, but it’s very clear to me that Andrew Yang is in the strongest position,” said Sean McElwee, co-founder of Data for Progress.
McElwee’s firm also conducted a poll for Our City, a PAC that raises money to oppose Yang’s candidacy and elect someone more in line with his policy agenda on the left. The survey, which was not released with any candidate rankings, found great support for a progressive agenda, but these findings were a little different.
Yang – who unsuccessfully offered a “universal basic income” promise – and Adams are not considered the progressive candidates in the race; earlier this week, the left-wing Working Families Party supported Stringer, former non-profit CEOs Dianne Morales and Wiley, as their three choice.
“Right now, an arrangement system will not be progressively beneficial,” McElwee said. “Eric Adams appears to be the strongest in a head-to-head series against Yang.”
However, he warned that there was still time to change the course of the race, especially as the only two candidates who presented ads would vote in single figures – Ray McGuire, Wall Street executive, and Shaun Donovan, former official of Obama and Bloomberg. Each has a PAC spending on their behalf, although Donovan’s is causing problems for his traditional fundraising efforts.
“We are out for 70 days and no money has been spent,” McElwee said. “I think this race is going to come down to advertising and earning media.”