A recent Sienna Poll delivers bad news to Governor Kathy Hochul and a blow to Democrat policies generally.
Just 33% of voters would re-elect Hochul today and 57% chose “want someone else”. Hochul still falls below 50% when even when looking at just Democrats.
“When only Democrats are asked if they want Hochul as their nominee in 2026, 49% say yes, while 32% say no,” Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg said. “Voters say that all things being equal they’d prefer a Democrat over a Republican to be the next governor, 52-34%, with 85% of Democrats saying Democrat, 85% of Republicans saying Republican. Independents side with the Republicans 39-29%.”
New York State Conservative Party Chairman, Gerry Kassar, said, “The nominations for governor are in February of 2026. Hochul can be nominated, but she's going to have to start figuring things out. She remains highly unpopular.”
“She's got Torres running around, and even when she tries to give us back $500, everybody criticizes her for having such a bad state of the economy. You've got state after state that are examples of how to do business in terms of taxation issues, that are completely different than the model New York state has been using for the last 15 years.”
At a time when the state is spending $2-3 billion on illegal immigrants while regular New Yorkers suffer under a struggling economy, it is no wonder there is criticism about the latest tax rebate coming from Albany.
Kassar says, “Let's say you're building a new house, or you're going to buy a house from some new development, and you find out you've got to go through all these manifestations because you can't use regular gas heat anymore, and so you have to use these new systems, which are extraordinarily expensive and aren't necessarily as effective. What does that cost to your bottom line over several years? $500 begins to sound like a drop in the proverbial bucket.”
The Sienna poll showed that 43% said the economy and cost of living are number one, followed by affordable housing and illegal immigrants.
On the issue of illegal immigrants, 51% of Democrats and 87% of Republicans want New York State to support Trump's efforts to deport migrants who are illegally living in New York.
“Well, so does Mayor Adams, apparently,” says Kassar. “It's just one of those things where it is transcending.”
“I'm not sure it always pops in polling the way we see it as insiders. The illegal immigration issue is a very real tie-in with public safety and law enforcement. You don't necessarily see public safety and law enforcement as a number pop as much because they are included in the illegal immigration deportation issue. I believe that if you dig down into those numbers, you're going to find that public safety and crime are very, very high up on voters’ minds, even though they may not always appear that way on the surface, “ added Kassar.
“Most people involved in the day-to-day aspect of political campaigns first look at the vulnerabilities of the incumbent and Hochul had a consistently consistent high vulnerability index going back now for many, many months - frankly to before the last election, which was very close,” offered Kassar.
In the end, people are going to look at these numbers and continue to say Gov. Hochul is beatable and maybe she needs to start thinking about whether she wants to run for reelection and subject herself to a strong Democratic primary. And, no one knows what Attorney General James wants to do.
Kassar concluded by saying, “I'm sure Trump would love to see her (AG James) run for governor. New York showed itself in this last election to not be supportive of these radical far-left policies and James is firmly implanted in those. She is a leader of the cause and that might go back to the fact that she was the first working family's party member to be elected to the New York City Council.”