Cynthia Nixon Still Way Behind Cuomo Despite Gains, Poll Shows

NEW YORK, NY — Cynthia Nixon is gaining on Gov. Andrew Cuomo but still faces an uphill battle in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday. Some 50 percent of registered Democrats surveyed said they’d vote for the second-term governor while just 28 percent picked the onetime “Sex and the City” star.

That’s the best poll performance for Nixon since she launched her longshot campaign in March. But the results indicate it’s still unlikely she can pull out a victory in the September primary.

“Actress Cynthia Nixon is a nuisance to Gov. Andrew Cuomo as he seeks a third term, but at this stage she is not running strong enough to make either the Democratic Primary or General Election challenge successful,” Peter A. Brown, the assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, said in a news release.

Cuomo's current 22-percentage-point lead is about half as large as it was in March, when a Siena College poll had him 47 points ahead of Nixon among Democrats.

But Nixon remains unknown to many voters despite her celebrity status. More than half the voters Quinnipiac surveyed said they haven't heard enough about her to form an opinion of her.

Nixon has sought to seize on progressives' dislike of Cuomo as she challenges him from the left. She's succeeding to an extent — 49 percent of Democrats identifying as "very liberal" would vote for her, compared with 31 percent for Cuomo.

But the incumbent governor bested Nixon by far in every other demographic category. He's broadly favored among Democrats regardless of age, education level, race and geopgraphic region, the poll shows.

Cuomo also holds a big advantage in the general election. Some 57 percent of voters sided with him in a head-to-head matchup with his Republican opponent, Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro, who got 26 percent.

Nixon could also appear on the November ballot as the Working Families Party candidate. She reportedly hasn't decided whether to soldier on if she loses the Democratic primary, but the poll suggests she'd be in for a second loss if she does: Cuomo beat Molinaro and Nixon with 40 percent of the votes to their 23 percent and 20 percent, respectively.

Quinnipiac conducted the telephone poll of 1,076 New York State voters, including 473 Democrats, from April 26 to May 1.

(Lead image: Democratic gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon appears at a May Day rally in Manhattan on May 1, 2018. Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)