President Biden leads former President Trump by 12 points in New York, according to a new poll, a safe lead but nearly half the margin Biden won the state by in 2020.
About 48 percent of New York voters said they support Biden in the Siena College poll released Tuesday, while 36 percent said they back Trump. The remaining 16 percent are undecided.
Biden’s lead shrinks to 10 points when polling a four-way race with independent candidates Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West.
The survey shows a tighter margin for the Democratic president compared with his 23-point win over Trump in the blue state in 2020 and Hillary Clinton's identical win margin in 2016.
“While Biden holds a 12-point lead over Trump in a head-to-head matchup, and leads by 10 points in a four-way race, it’s worth remembering just how ‘blue’ New York is,” Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg said in a statement.
“Democrats have a 27-point enrollment advantage over Republicans, Biden beat Trump by 23 points in 2020, and no Republican presidential candidate has carried the state since Ronald Reagan in 1984, 40 years ago,” Greenberg noted.
The poll found low enthusiasm for both major party candidates, with a slim plurality of New Yorkers overall — including a large majority of independents — wanting someone other than Biden or Trump.
Sixty-one percent of Republicans back Trump, while 29 percent want someone else, according to the poll. Meanwhile, 46 percent of Democrats want Biden, compared with 38 percent who want another choice, the poll found.
The results also underline the importance of New York for the 2024 House race, where Democrats are targeting a handful of GOP seats in districts that Biden won in 2020.
Democrats already flipped the district formerly held by Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) in Long Island, after former Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.) won a special election last week.
The Siena poll surveyed 806 registered New York voters Feb. 12-14 with a margin of error of 4.2 percentage points.
