New York Governor Andrew Cuomo resigned his office after sexual harassment charges were brought against him. Trended data from Economist/YouGov polls shows that the New York Governor, who will leave office on August 24, faced a remarkable fall in favorability from the early days of the pandemic when he gave popular daily briefings on the state’s approach to COVID-19.
At the height of Cuomo’s popularity in mid-April, seven in 10 Democrats (72%) had a favorable view of Cuomo. Half of the nation (48%) also carried a positive view of Cuomo as his press conferences were ongoing. At the beginning of April, even one-third of Republicans (32%) liked the Democratic governor.
Cuomo’s ratings are now poor across the board — even with members of his own party — and have gotten even worse in the last week. After announcing his resignation, Democrats’ positive views dropped from 23% to 19%. The share of Democrats with negative ratings of Cuomo jumped 11 points (54% to 65%) following his resignation announcement.
By more than eight to one (68% to 8%), Americans this week approve of his resignation. Democrats approve of it by six to one (73% to 12%) and Republicans approve by 78% to 6%.
Cuomo’s difficulties with the public go even further: 53% nationally want him to face criminal charges, and just 13% do not. Nearly half of Democrats (46%) agree on this question, just 19% do not.
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 August 14 - 17, 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 2.8% for the overall sample.
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