{"id":379104,"date":"2026-10-22T01:12:19","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T01:12:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/379104\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T01:12:19","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T01:12:19","slug":"hochul-clinging-to-double-digit-lead-over-republican-bruce-blakeman-in-ny-governors-race-poll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/379104\/","title":{"rendered":"Hochul clinging to double digit lead over Republican Bruce Blakeman in NY governor’s race: poll"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gov. Kathy Hochul is holding on to a 14-point lead over Republican rival Bruce Blakeman<\/a> in next month\u2019s gubernatorial election, according to a poll released Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The new Quinnipiac University survey shows 55% of likely voters backing the Democratic incumbent, and 41% choosing her GOP opponent.<\/p>\n

When Hochul faced then-GOP nominee Lee Zeldin in 2022, the Quinnipiac poll from that October showed her ahead of him by only 4 points, 50% to 46%.<\/p>\n

Gov. Kathy Hochul speaks during a press conference in New York, Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026 Brian Zak\/NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cHochul is in a better position than she was four years ago when she faced Lee Zeldin,\u201d said Quinnipiac pollster Mary Snow.<\/p>\n

Blakeman did pick up some ground since September, when Quinnipiac had Hochul ahead by 19 points, 58% to 39%.<\/p>\n

In the latest poll, Hochul \u2014 who is seeking re-election to a second, four-year term \u2014 was predictably pulling 94% support from Democrats.<\/p>\n

Blakeman, the Nassau County executive, got the backing of 95% of Republicans in a state where Dems outnumber GOP voters two-and-half to one.<\/p>\n

In a bright spot for Blakeman<\/a>, 51% of registered independent voters backed him compared to 44% for Hochul.<\/p>\n

Republican candidate for Governor Bruce Blakeman holds a news conference with NYS court officers at 100 Centre Street Criminal Court building, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. William Farrington for NY Post<\/p>\n

But Hochul is running much stronger among voters in deep blue New York City than she did in Quinnipiac\u2019s pre-election poll four years ago.<\/p>\n

In October 2022, Quinnipiac showed 59% of Big Apple voters supporting Hochul and 37% backing Zeldin, the current federal Environmental Protection Agency administrator and former Long Island congressman.<\/p>\n

In Wednesday\u2019s survey, 70% of New York City voters supported Hochul and 24% backed Blakeman.<\/p>\n

Blakeman leads Hochul 52% to 46% upstate, and they split among voters in the downstate suburbs \u2014 48% Blakeman, 47% Hochul.<\/p>\n

The survey also showed Hochul benefits from a yawning gender gap, leading Blakeman 60% to 35% among women voters. Men were split, with 49% for Hochul and 48% behind Blakeman.<\/p>\n

But overall, neither candidate was very popular.<\/p>\n

Republican candidate for Governor Bruce Blakeman greets construction workers after holding a news conference to accept the New York State court officers union endorsements William Farrington for NY Post<\/p>\n

Forty-five percent of voters said they have a favorable opinion of Hochul, while 46% had an unfavorable opinion, with the rest undecided, the poll showed.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, 36% of voters have a favorable opinion of Blakeman, 40% have an unfavorable opinion of him and 23% haven\u2019t heard enough about him.<\/p>\n

Hochul and the Democrats hold a strong financial advantage for the final stretch of the campaign.<\/p>\n

The governor had a combined $22 million cash on hand between Friends for Kathy Hochul and the state Democratic Party, substantially more than the Blakeman campaign and the New York GOP.<\/p>\n

Early voting begins Saturday and runs through Nov. 1 before the final vote on Nov. 3 Election Day.<\/p>\n

More than 40% of voters combined cited cost of living (22%) and the economy (19%) as the top issues followed by immigration at 13%, the survey showed.<\/p>\n

More than 70% of voters who considered pocketbook issues and the economy their top concerns favored Hochul.<\/p>\n

Likewise, more than 70% of voters who cared most about immigration backed Blakeman.<\/p>\n

Only 34% of voters had a favorable view of President Trump\u2019s job performance, while 60% disapproved.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, 43% of voters had a favorable view of first-year New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and 42% had an unfavorable view.<\/p>\n

Quinnipiac U. interviewed 1,167 likely voters from October 15th to 19th. It has\u00a0 a margin of error of +\/- 3.8 percentage points.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Kathy Hochul is holding on to a 14-point lead over Republican rival Bruce Blakeman in next month\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1626,426,57,9,24,55,54,56,13895,58],"class_list":["post-379104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-bruce-blakeman","tag-kathy-hochul","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-ny-governor-election-2026","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}