New York Governor Andrew Cuomo faces new charges – not just the revelation that emerged last week of his underreporting COVID-19 deaths in New York State nursing homes, but charges that he may have engaged in sexual harassment. Three women have come forward, one while this week’s Economist/YouGov poll was ongoing.
The governor’s ratings haven’t improved from last week, but they haven’t dropped significantly either. Twice as many Americans today hold an unfavorable opinion of him (52%) as a favorable one (25%), but Democrats remain positive (48% to 34%). That is not much different from a week ago when Democrats viewed the Governor favorably (51% favorable to 31% unfavorable) and Americans overall did not (26% positive, 50% negative).
Last week’s percentages were a large drop from an April poll, when Cuomo was seen by many as a reliable source of information about the pandemic. There are few differences between men and women when they evaluate Cuomo today or in how they evaluated him last week. Democratic men and Democratic women hold similar views of the Governor.
Americans were slightly more aware of the nursing home charges against Cuomo last week (75%) than of the sexual harassment claims this week (70%). Those new charges were still developing over the weekend. On Wednesday, Governor Cuomo denied ever touching anyone inappropriately but apologized for other behavior, saying, “I now understand that I acted in a way that made people feel uncomfortable. It was unintentional and I truly and deeply apologize for it.”
Related: Andrew Cuomo’s ratings have plummeted over the last year
See the toplines and crosstabs from this Economist/YouGov poll
Methodology: The Economist survey was conducted by YouGov using a nationally representative sample of 1,500 US Adult Citizens interviewed online between February 27 - March 2, 2021. This sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, and education based on the American Community Survey, conducted by the US Bureau of the Census, as well as 2016 Presidential vote, registration status, geographic region, and news interest. Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of all US citizens. The margin of error is approximately 2.6% for the overall sample.
Image: Getty
