Poll finds Yang with big lead in NYC mayor’s race

Andrew Yang holds a double-digit lead in the Democratic primary for New York City mayor, according to a new poll released on Wednesday.

The poll from Fontas Advisors and Core Decision Analytics shows Yang notching 28 percent support among likely Democratic primary voters. His closest rival, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, came in at 17 percent, while New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer finished third with 13 percent support.

Shaun Donovan, a former Obama administration official, and activist Maya Wiley tied for fourth place, scoring 8 percent each in the poll. No other candidate included in the survey broke 2 percent. Another 19 percent of respondents said they are still undecided. 

Yang, a tech entrepreneur, gained a national profile during his unsuccessful bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, during which he campaigned on the idea of a universal basic income that would involve paying all adult Americans $1,000 per month.

That national profile appears to have given him an early advantage in name recognition in his mayoral campaign. 

Eighty-four percent of respondents said that they have heard of Yang, giving him the highest name identification of any candidate in the crowded primary field. Stringer, for instance, finished second on the front, with 66 percent saying they have heard of him.

The issues at the top of New York City primary voters’ minds are the coronavirus pandemic and reopening and reviving the city’s economy, according to the poll. 

Thirty percent of respondents said that preventing the spread of COVID-19 and distributing vaccines was the single most important issue for the next mayor. Another 19 percent said that reopening the economy and creating jobs was the most pressing challenge. 

New York City has been among the areas hardest hit by the pandemic since it emerged as an early hot spot for the outbreak last spring. 

The poll reflects the impact that the coronavirus pandemic has had on the city’s residents. More than half of respondents — 57 percent — said that they experienced significant economic harm as a result of the outbreak, including 26 percent who said they “strongly agree” with that sentiment and 31 percent who “somewhat agree.”

The poll was conducted by Core Decision Analytics from Jan. 20-25 and includes responses from 842 online interviews with likely Democratic primary voters in New York City. It has a margin of sampling error of 3.38 percentage points.