Schumer favorability at lowest point in 20 years among New Yorkers: Poll

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) favorability is at its lowest point among New Yorkers in the past 20 years, according to a new survey.

The Siena College poll, released Tuesday, found that Schumer — who was first elected to the Senate in 1998 — is underwater among Big Apple voters, with 39 percent having a favorable view of the lawmaker. About 46 percent said the opposite.

Overall, the Democratic leader’s favorability rating in the state is at the lowest point since February 2005 when it was at 38 percent. Half of the respondents had an unfavorable view of the New York senator. Some 13 percent did not have an opinion, the survey found.

The last time the New York Democrat’s favorability was net positive was in Siena’s February poll, when 45 percent of respondents had a favorable view of the Senate minority leader. At the time, 41 percent said they had an unfavorable view of him.

Schumer’s favorability has also dropped among Democrats, according to the poll, with 49 percent of Democratic Party voters having a favorable view of the leader. Nearly 4 in 10 respondents, 39 percent, had an unfavorable view of the veteran senator, the results show.

The gap has narrowed since June, when 55 percent had a favorable view of Schumer, compared to 35 percent who said otherwise, the pollsters noted.

An Economist/YouGov poll from mid-April found that just 23 percent of U.S. adults had a favorable view of Schumer, while 51 percent of Americans had an unfavorable outlook of the lawmaker. Later that month, the Democratic leader was asked about a survey showing that he had the lowest approval rating of any congressional leader, which he dismissed.

“Polls come and go. Our party is united,” he said at the time. “We’re on our front foot, we’re stepping forward, going after [President] Trump and having real success.”

The Siena poll was conducted Aug. 4-7 among 813 New York state registered voters. The margin of error was 4.2 percentage points.

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