New York City 2026 Poll: Mamdani Posts Positive Approval at 100 Days, but Majority Say NYC on Wrong Track
Voters Approve of Mayor’s Handling of Childcare, Housing Affordability; Split on City Budget
A new Emerson College Polling/PIX11 survey of New York City registered voters finds Mayor Zohran Mamdani with a 43% job approval rating and 27% disapproval 100 days into his first term as Mayor. Thirty percent are neutral.
“Among those registered voters who voted in the November mayoral election, Mamdani’s support is stronger, with a net 26-point positive approval rating (55% approve, 29% disapprove), compared to a more modest nine-point net positive rating among those who did not vote (35% approve, 26% disapprove),” Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, said.
A majority of voters (59%) think things in New York City are on the wrong track, while 41% think the city is headed in the right direction. About 3 in 5 voters (59%) say Mamdani has been focusing on the issues that are important to them, while 41% say he is not.
“Majorities of Black (58%) and Hispanic (68%) New York City voters say the city is on the wrong track, while white voters are more divided, with 51% saying the city is headed in the right direction and 49% saying it is on the wrong track,” Kimball noted.
Voters were asked if they approve or disapprove of the way Mamdani is addressing housing affordability, childcare, public safety/policing, and the city budget.
Mamdani is rated the highest on childcare: 54% approve, while 21% disapprove, followed by housing affordability (49% approve/25% disapprove) and public safety (45% approve/32% disapprove). Voters are most split on his handling of the city budget: 40% approve and 37% disapprove.
When it comes to the condition of the New York City economy, 40% rate it as poor, 38% fair, 16% good and 3% excellent.
Voters were asked which of the following they think New York City should do to close the budget gap: 55% think the state should raise taxes on the wealthy, 41% think New York City should better manage its spending, and 4% think a five percent property tax increase should be implemented.
Sixty-five percent of registered voters support a millionaire’s tax, while 20% oppose and 15% are not sure.
- Registered voters with household incomes less than $150,000 per year support the tax by a 54-point margin, 68% to 14%, while voters with household incomes over $150,000 support by a 14-point margin, 56% to 42%.
A plurality of voters (44%) do not think a corporate tax increase of 1-2 percent would cause companies to leave New York City, while 30% think it would and 27% are not sure.
Looking back to the winter storms of 2026, 29% give Mamdani an “A” grade on the storm response, 33% a “B,” 18% a “C,” 9% a “D” and 11% an “F.”
Poll Methodology
The Emerson College Polling survey was conducted April 5-6, 2026. The overall sample of New York City registered voters, n=850, has a credibility interval, similar to a poll’s margin of error (MOE), of +/- 3.4 percent. The data sets were weighted by gender, education, race, age, 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 email; a probability-based panel of voters provided by Consensus Strategies using MMS text-to-web; and additional panel interviews provided by PureSpectrum. Panel responses were matched to the Aristotle voter file using respondents’ full name and ZIP code. 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.
