69 Percent of New Yorkers Think Eric Adams Should Resign, Poll Shows

Just 26 percent of New York City residents approve of the mayor and a majority want him to step down, according to a poll taken after his indictment on corruption charges.

Most New York City residents think Mayor Eric Adams broke the law, is doing a bad job as mayor and should resign, according to a poll released Friday, the first since he was indicted last week on bribery and corruption charges.

The poll, which was conducted by the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, found that 69 percent of adults living in New York City, and 71 percent of Democrats, thought the mayor should resign. Only 30 percent of respondents said Mr. Adams should serve out the rest of his term.

A majority of Black New Yorkers, who have traditionally made up Mr. Adams’s political base and whose support helped propel him to office, also said he should resign. Though the Black residents surveyed were somewhat more supportive of Mr. Adams than the respondents at large, 59 percent wanted him to step down, while 39 percent wanted him to serve out his term.

The poll also found broad dissatisfaction with the tenure of Mr. Adams, a Democrat. Only 26 percent of New Yorkers surveyed approved of his job performance as mayor, down from 37 percent last November. And nearly half — 47 percent — of respondents said they strongly disapproved of his performance, while just 11 percent said they strongly approved.

Mr. Adams pleaded not guilty last week to five criminal charges, including bribery and fraud. The indictment against him accused him of accepting free or discounted travel and illegal campaign contributions from the Turkish government in exchange for political favors.

The mayor has resisted growing calls for his resignation from state and local leaders. A number of top city officials have stepped down in the past month as the investigations surrounding Mr. Adams’s administration have continued to swirl.

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Gov. Kathy Hochul has the power to remove Mr. Adams from office, and most New Yorkers — 63 percent — think she should begin the removal process if he does not resign on his own, according to the new poll.

Ms. Hochul, whose own approval rating fell to a historic low of 39 percent in a separate poll last month, has been watching Mr. Adams closely since he was charged. She said in a statement after the indictment was unsealed that she expected him to “find an appropriate path forward to ensure the people of New York City are being well served by their leaders.”

She added: “We must give New Yorkers confidence that there is steady, responsible leadership at every level of government.”

Since then, Mr. Adams has embarked on a campaign to shore up support, speaking at churches across the city and seeking to surround himself with the types of voters who elected him in 2021.

On Friday morning, he met with Black clergy members and elected officials at a Baptist church in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Asked about the poll’s findings as he entered the church, Mr. Adams dismissed them.

“We have not been able to fully tell our side of the conversation,” he said. “Anytime you see what happened last week, there is going to be a natural reaction. I’ve been in the city a long time. Let the process play out. Let New Yorkers see our response to this whole matter.”

Mr. Adams reiterated on Friday that he did not plan to step down. Inside the church, he told the group that he hoped people would see him as “standing tall and dignified to lead this city,” despite the political and legal uncertainty he faced.

“I’m not abandoning the family of this city because it’s difficult and because it’s hard,” he said. “Hard times don’t destroy you. They fortify you. They make you who you are.”

According to Friday’s poll, nearly three-quarters of New Yorkers have heard either a “great deal” or a “good amount” about the indictment. Only 28 percent said they had heard little or nothing about the charges.

Most New York residents, 65 percent, said they thought Mr. Adams had done something illegal, while 24 percent said they thought he had acted unethically but not illegally. Just 8 percent said they thought he had done nothing wrong.

Despite Mr. Adams’s efforts to hang on to the support of the Black and Latino residents who have backed him in the past, Friday’s poll showed his approval rating underwater among both groups.

Sixty-one percent of Black New Yorkers and 68 percent of Latinos said they disapproved of Mr. Adams. And 89 percent of Black residents and 88 percent of Latino residents said he had acted either illegally or unethically.

Those findings aside, several of the Brooklyn residents who greeted Mr. Adams outside the church on Friday said they did not think he had broken the law.

“He did nothing less or more than other politicians do when they get in there,” said Zenobia Howard, who owns a laundry business and said she knew Mr. Adams from around her neighborhood. “He probably just took it a little too far.”

She added: “I’m still waiting for former President Trump to go to prison and they are picking on this little guy.”

Joshua Berry, an entrepreneur, said Mr. Adams should have disclosed his trips abroad, but added that he did not think the mayor should be prosecuted.

“I don’t think he did anything criminal,” Mr. Berry said. “It’s a lot of other things that we should be focusing on.”

Mr. Adams’s first term is set to last through the end of next year, and Democrats had been lining up to challenge him even before he was indicted. Eighty-one percent of New Yorkers, including 80 percent of Democrats, said they thought Mr. Adams should not run for re-election.

The poll also asked respondents whether they thought former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo should run for mayor, as he is reportedly considering doing. Most, 55 percent of registered voters and 52 percent of registered Democrats, said they did not want him to.

Mr. Cuomo resigned from office in 2021 after the New York attorney general concluded that he had sexually harassed nearly a dozen women. He has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

The Marist poll released Friday surveyed 1,073 adult New York residents between Sept. 30 and Oct. 1.