A new Siena College poll shows Kamala Harris has a healthy lead over Donald Trump in New York.
But she's still lagging behind Joe Biden's margin of victory four years ago.
The Siena Research Institute found that Vice President Kamala Harris leads former President Donald Trump 55-42% among likely voters. That is little changed from a survey last month.
Harris continues to perform better in polls than President Biden did before he dropped out of the race.
But she'll have to pick up the pace to match Biden's performance in 2020.
He defeated Trump by more than 20 points in New York.
The Siena poll released on Thursday showed weaker numbers in terms of her favorability rating.
Siena pollster Steve Greenberg said that “while Hochul’s favorability rating has never been outstanding…it has now hit an all-time low, 34-54%.”
Greenberg also noted that Hochul’s favorability rating was lower than Trump’s, with 34% of likely New York voters having a favorable opinion of Hochul, compared to a 39% favorability rating for Trump.
Speaking with reporters in New York City on Thursday, when asked about the Siena poll, Hochul said that the only numbers she is focused on right now are those needed to garner enough congressional seats for Democrats so that Hakeem Jeffries is the next Speaker of the House.
“So, I’m looking at number seven; seven seats we need to flip,” said Hochul. “Two seats we need to hold, and my focus has been, outside the governing, (on) the political side, has been laser focused on ensuring that we have a victory that the country is counting on us and California to do.”
When pressed again about the recent poll numbers, Hochul noted that there is a lot of time before her next election, which is in the fall of 2026.
This story includes reporting by Jon Campbell of WNYC/Gothamist.
