Evan Roth Smith on the difficult path ahead for Adams and Cuomo

Slingshot’s Evan Roth Smith talked to the New York Post about a Slingshot poll that showed Zohran Mamdani without a majority, but far ahead of sitting mayor Eric Adams. It’s hard to see a road to victory for Adams, who will need to unite the moderate wing of the Democratic Party while also courting the votes of the city’s Republicans — a tough task with only a few months until election day.

“While Slingshot founding partner Evan Roth Smith said Mamdani’s 35% is far from a majority and that there’s room for an alternative, he noted it would be difficult for either Cuomo or Adams — who have duked it out in recent weeks over who can better challenge Mamdani — to mount a competitive race in November.”

“The problem is the ballot is set. And the strongest Mamdani alternative in this poll is Andrew Cuomo, who just lost to him decisively in the Democratic primary,” he said, referencing Mamdani upsetting the former governor by nearly 125,000 votes.”

“And the Mamdani alternative that seems to have the most momentum as a fresh alternative is Eric Adams, who’s polling barely in the double digits and seems to have lost credibility everywhere in the election.”

“Smith highlighted that the group most skeptical of Mamdani is older white homeowners in the outer boroughs but that they wouldn’t be guaranteed votes for either Adams or Cuomo in a general election. ‘You have a large number of largely white, largely outer borough homeowners who are not necessarily Democrats, who are skeptical of Mamdani. The problem is getting those voters together behind either Andrew Cuomo or Eric Adams seems to still be a pretty tall order and becomes even more difficult since they’re both in the race,’ he said.”

“There’s simply not enough Republican support for someone who is a sitting Democratic mayor of New York,” Smith said. “So it’s really, really difficult when someone is polling at 11% and the ballot isn’t changing to see what the path to victory is.”

Read the full New York Post article here.