Zohran Mamdani won over 33% of Jewish voters as he was elected mayor of New York City on Tuesday, according to exit polling.
The poll found that 63% of Jewish voters cast their ballots for Andrew Cuomo, the former governor who ran as an independent after losing to Mamdani in the Democratic primary. Cuomo polled second throughout the general election and was the subject of a campaign by Jewish advocates to consolidate votes against Mamdani, a longtime critic of Israel whose positions elicited allegations of antisemitism.
Only 3% of Jews voted for the third major candidate, Republican Curtis Sliwa, according to the poll, conducted on behalf of multiple news organizations by the polling firm SSRS.
The pro-Cuomo push appeared to yield results in precincts with many Orthodox Jews in particular. Cuomo neared 80% of the vote in such precincts, along with winning large populations of more liberal Jews in Manhattan and the Bronx, according to The New York Times. But the Upper West Side, seen as a bastion for Jewish liberals, went for Mamdani, albeit at slightly less than the citywide rate.
There was evidence that much of Cuomo’s support came from Republicans: 69% of his voters said they believed Donald Trump was doing a good job as president.
Though concerns about affordability reigned among New Yorkers at the polls, Israel also loomed over their votes. The SSRS poll found that 67% of New Yorkers said the candidates’ positions on Israel factored into their vote, with 38% calling those positions a major factor. The election coincided with a broad drop-off in support for Israel among U.S. voters, as demonstrated repeatedly in polling over the last year.
Over 2 million New Yorkers voted, more than double the number who voted in the 2021 mayoral election. Dominating among younger voters, voters of color and voters with college degrees, Mamdani became the first candidate to win over 1 million votes in a New York City mayor’s race since John V. Lindsay in 1969.
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