NYC Primary Voters Preferred Mamdani’s Public Safety Approach, Exit Poll Shows

NEW YORK CITY — New York City Democratic primary voters voiced that public safety was a top concern for them and preferred Zohran Mamdani's approach to the issue compared to other candidates, according to a recently released exit poll.

Opponents of Mamdani's argued that the assemblyman was inexperienced, didn't take crime seriously enough and previously supported to defund the police, but an exit poll from Vera Action showed a majority of primary voters preferred a prevention first approach to address crime.

Vera Action commissioned the exit poll with Change Research and surveyed 1,136 primary voters between June 23 and 27. Voters were reached through text messages and direct marketing ads on social media.

Seventy-five percent of Democratic primary voters preferred to “fully fund things that are proven to create safe communities—like good schools, jobs, and affordable housing,” compared to only 25 percent of respondents who favored doing “more to get tough on crime," according to the exit poll.

Alana Sivin, Vera Action program director, told Patch that Mamdani’s safety platform beat “tough-on-crime” and built a big tent.

"His platform on crime and public safety was the winning one in our poll, even when Cuomo’s platform had his name attached to it. In a political environment where Democrats have been seen as weak or as "soft" on crime, Mamdani pulled even with Cuomo on safety, and won with most voter groups," she said.

Here's what Sivin had to say about other notable exit poll findings:

AAPI/Latino Voters Sided With Mamdani

Sivin noted that much has been made in recent election cycles of AAPI and Latino voters moving to the right, but their exit poll showed that these two groups not only voted for Mamdani overall, but especially on safety. The two groups tend to be more moderate and independent of the Democratic voter block.

The Vera Action program director believes that the assemblyman could continue to win over independent and moderate New Yorkers in the general election.

"If Mamdani focuses on safety being a core part of an affordable, livable city. Indeed, in other places—like Virginia, Michigan, and Pennsylvania—we've seen that independent and moderate voters prefer this prevention-first, "serious about safety" approach," Sivin said.

TV Ads Attacking Mamdani On Crime Didn't Have Intended Impact

Fix the City, a political action committee supporting Andrew Cuomo, spent $25 million on television ads attacking Mamdani on crime, portraying him as a “dangerous” and referencing his use of the phrase “defund the police” in the past.

According to the poll findings and Sivin, the criticism fell flat due to the assemblyman addressing the issue head on and offering proactive solutions.

Eighty-three percent of voters said that a candidate’s platform on “making communities safe and the right role for mental health treatment, social services, and police” is more important to their vote than their “history of support or opposition for more police funding, including any past statements on defunding the police.”

Despite the findings, Sivin expects the attacks to continue during the general election.

"We saw Mamdani effectively inoculate these attacks by turning the debate to what police should do. He repeatedly stated that we can't ask them to do everything and proposed a new solution: the Department of Community Safety, a Department that will invest in citywide mental health programs and crisis response—including deploying dedicated outreach workers in 100 subway stations, providing medical services in vacant commercial units, and increasing Transit Ambassadors to assist New Yorkers on their journeys—expand evidence-based gun violence prevention programs, and increase funding to hate violence prevention programs– all while ensuring that police officers focus on improving clearance rates," she said.

Voters Preferred Mamdani’s Message On Safety

In a three-way engaged debate question, respondents were asked to compare and rank the policy platforms of three candidates on crime and safety: Andrew Cuomo, Brad Lander, and Zohran Mamdani. Cuomo’s crime platform was far more popular when it was associated with his name, yet the platform itself was preferred by only 16 percent of voters when names were not attached, according to the exit poll.

The majority (58 percent) chose Mamdani’s platform when it was not attributed to the assemblyman.

Sivin told Patch they were particularly struck by those results.

"Some pundits have claimed that Zohran won despite his message on safety; but that’s not true. That his message polled well when not attached to his name shows that he, in part, did so well because his policy on safety was one that resonated with voters – even ones who would’ve preferred a different candidate," she added.

You view the full exit poll findings here.