NYC Voters 50+ Have Candidate Preferences and Issues in Mind for Next Mayor

A new AARP poll of New York City active voters 50 and older finds Andrew Yang and Curtis Sliwa hold large leads in the mayoral primary races among the city's most reliable voting bloc, with 24% of Democrats selecting Yang as their top candidate and 40% of Republicans selecting Sliwa. 

The poll, conducted by Siena College Research Institute for AARP, finds Eric Adams and Scott Stringer are in a dead heat behind Yang, each with 13% of the first choice vote, followed by Ray McGuire at 9% among Democrats. In the Republican race, Sliwa leads Fernando Mateo (6%) and Bill Pepitone (4%).

Notably, 26% of Democrats and 44% of Republicans remained undecided on their first choice candidates according to the poll of 811 New York City active voters 50 and older, which was fielded from March 29 to April 9, 2021.

Methodology

This AARP poll was conducted by the Siena College Research Institute March 29–April 8, 2021 among 811 New York City active voters age 50 and older with 415 voters contacted through a dual frame (landline and cell phone) mode and 396 responses drawn from a proprietary online panel (Lucid) of New Yorkers. There were 531 registered Democrats and 129 registered Republicans. Telephone calls were conducted in English. Calls were made to a stratified weighted sample of voters from the L-2 Voter list via both land and cell phones.  Data from both collection modes (phone and web) was merged and statistically adjusted by age, party, race/ethnicity, borough, and gender to ensure representativeness.

For more information, contact Kate Bridges at kbridges@aarp.org. For media inquiries, contact media@aarp.org.