Kathy Hochul’s poll numbers underwater as more than half of New Yorkers are ready for new gov: poll

ALBANY – Gov. Kathy Hochul’s favorability numbers plunged back underwater as more than half of New Yorkers would vote for someone else to lead the state, a new poll released Tuesday found.

Only 44% of New Yorkers view Hochul favorably compared with 46% who view her unfavorably — giving her an underwater -2% favorability rating as she gears up for a 2026 reelection bid, according to the Siena College poll.

“After hitting year-long highs in both Hochul’s favorability and job approval ratings last month, those numbers largely held constant this month, although Republicans, already very negative toward Hochul, turned even more so on both measurements,” Siena poll spokesperson Steven Greenberg said in a statement.

Last month, Hochul’s net favorability rating had bumped up slightly into positive territory with 44% of voters rating her favorably compared with 43% who rated her unfavorably.

That short lived blip was the first time her rating wasn’t underwater since January 2024, according to polls.

Siena also asked voters if they would prefer to reelect Hochul or go with “someone else” — only 36% said they would give the governor a second full term compared with 55% who said they wanted a new leader for the Empire State.

And only 51% of Democrats polled said they would want to re-elect Hochul, according to the poll.

The survey also dipped into a range of policy issues and asked respondents how school districts should handle female trans athletes participating on sports teams.

Almost half of those surveyed, 46% said all districts should ban transgender girls from playing on female sports teams.

Almost a third of Dems agreed, per the survey.

“Democrats are closely divided on the question of transgender girls playing on girls school sports teams – 32% want it banned in all districts and 31% want it allowed in all districts,” Greenberg wrote.

The remaining half was almost evenly split indicating that schools should be required to allow trans girls to play on female teams or that individual districts should get a say over their policy.