Almost 7 in 10 New York City residents say Adams should resign: Poll

New York Mayor Eric Adams is facing criminal charges for wire fraud, conspiracy and bribery which has caused the city’s residents to lose faith in his ability to serve them, according to a new Marist poll released Friday. 

Responses show 69 percent of survey takers believe he should resign while 30 percent of people believe he should serve out the rest of his term. Throughout the past two years of Adams’s mayorship, his disapproval rating has spiked by 50 percentage points.

In March of 2022, only 24 percent of New Yorkers disapproved of his leadership compared to 74 percent of residents who disapproved of his tenure as of October. One percent remained unsure of his abilities. Respondents were also asked if they believe Adams has done something illegal.

Sixty-five percent of residents believe he has done something illegal compared to 24 percent who believe he has done something unethical but not illegal. Eight percent of respondents believe he has done nothing wrong and one percent remain unsure. 

Democrats and Republicans are almost equally critical of Adams amidst his legal scandal. When asked to reflect on the job Adams is doing as mayor, 48 percent of registered GOP voters strongly disapproved of his choices and 49 percent of Democrats felt the same.

New York residents with a college degree were the demographic with the highest rate of strong disapproval at 55 percent followed by those making $50,000 or more and white New Yorkers, with the latter two demographics totaling 53 percent. 

Geographically, residents in Manhattan and Brooklyn were the most displeased with Adams. Manhattan survey takers showed 46 percent strongly disapprove of Mayor Adams, 30 percent disapprove, 14 percent approve of him and 10 percent strongly approve of him. Zero percent were unsure.

Brooklyn residents were documented at 46 percent strongly disapproving, 21 percent disapproving, 17 percent approving and 15 percent strongly approving, while one percent were unsure. 

Marist also captured data by gender that showed men and women with strong disapproval at 47 percent. Twenty-eight percent of women disapprove, 15 percent approve, 8 percent strongly approve and one percent are unsure. Twenty-five percent of men comparatively disapproved, 15 percent approved of Adams’s leadership and 13 percent strongly approved while zero percent remained unsure. 

If Adams does not resign, 63 percent of residents say New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) should begin the process of removing Adams from his position, while 36 percent do not think Hochul should take these measures and 2 percent are unsure. Fifty-five percent of residents don’t think former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo should replace Adams as mayor of New York, 44 percent are in favor of the measure and one percent are unsure.

This survey was conducted from Sept. 30 to Oct. 1 by the Marist Poll with responses from 1,073 New York City residents over the age of 18. Surveys were distributed via text and online. The margin of error in responses was plus or minus 3.6 percentage points. Results for registered voters were within plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.