Eric Adams gets worst approval rating for NYC mayor in 27-year history of Quinnipiac poll

Less than a third of New York City voters approve of Mayor Eric Adams’ job performance, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday — the lowest approval rating for a Big Apple mayor since the poll began in 1996.

The poll, which surveyed nearly 1,300 self-identified registered voters in live phone interviews from Nov. 30 to Dec. 4, found 58% said they disapprove of Adams’ performance, compared to 28% who said they approve. Previously, the lowest-rated New York City mayor was Michael Bloomberg in 2003, when he received an approval rating of 31%, according to Quinnipiac.

Driving voters’ dissatisfaction with Adams were budget cuts he’s announced, as well as his handling of the migrant crisis, homelessness, and public schools, the poll found.

Most voters polled, 60%, even disapproved of Adams’ handling of crime — an issue he campaigned on.

"There's no good news for Mayor Adams in this poll,” said Mary Snow, a poll assistant director at Quinnipiac, in a written statement. “Not only are voters giving him poor grades on the job he's doing at City Hall, their views on his character have dimmed.”

Those views on Adams’ character include 54% of voters who said they didn’t think he was “honest and trustworthy” and 55% who said he didn’t have “strong leadership qualities.”

The poll had a margin of error of +/- 2.7 percentage points and is the second one in recent memory where most voters surveyed disapproved of Adams’ performance.

The mayor fared better among his political base: A plurality of Black voters, 48%, approved of the job he’s doing, compared to 38% who disapproved. But the numbers are still low for a Democratic mayor — at a similar point in his first term, former Mayor Bill de Blasio received a 71% approval rating from Black voters, with 21% disapproving.

The poll comes as Adams — now almost two years into his term — faces a broadening federal investigation into whether foreign money was funneled into his 2021 mayoral campaign, as well as a recently filed civil lawsuit accusing him of sexual assault in 1993, when he was a transit officer. Neither Adams nor his campaign has been accused of wrongdoing in the probe, and the mayor has denied the sexual assault allegations.

When it comes to the campaign investigation, 22% of voters said they believe Adams did something “illegal,” while 30% said they believe he did something “unethical but nothing illegal.” Most respondents said they hadn’t heard or read much about the lawsuit, but 58% said the allegations were either “very serious” or “somewhat serious,” based on what they knew.

Asked to comment on the poll results, City Hall spokesperson Fabien Levy said the city is “in a better place” under Adams’ leadership, even as the administration has more work to do.

“Incorrect polls come out every day, but the real numbers cannot be questioned: crime is down, jobs are up, and we continue to deliver billions of dollars into the pockets of working people,” Levy said.

Adams is preparing to head to D.C. on Thursday to meet with federal officials on the migrant crisis — about which 85% of the voters surveyed said they were either “very concerned” or “somewhat concerned” in terms of the city’s ability to “accommodate those who have arrived since last spring.”

Only a quarter of respondents approved of Adams’ handling of the crisis, versus two-thirds who disapproved.

Elizabeth Kim contributed reporting.