Democrats want to drop Joe Biden for Andrew Cuomo, poll finds
A majority of Democrats want to nominate New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo for president instead of Joe Biden, according to poll results shared exclusively with The Post.
The national poll found 56 percent of Democrats prefer Cuomo, with 44 percent wanting to stick with presumptive nominee Biden — a 12-point margin well outside the 4.8 percent margin of error for the Democratic sample.
Hispanic voters, young people, women and self-identified liberals are most likely to favor dumping the former vice president for Cuomo.
The poll, conducted April 3-6, was commissioned by the conservative pro-market Club for Growth, which generally supports Republican candidates.
Cuomo denied last month that he wanted to run for president, but some Democrats still are clamoring for an alternative to Biden, who faded from public view during the coronavirus outbreak, which elevated Cuomo in daily press conferences.
Club for Growth vice president of communications Joe Kildea told The Post that the results highlight Biden’s weakness as a candidate.
“With every major news event, Democrats realize more and more how bad of a candidate Joe Biden is, and Democrats now preferring Cuomo is just another example,” Kildea said.
The poll was conducted online among a representative sample of 1,000 people by WPAi, one of the top three polling firms used by Republicans.
Bryon Allen, chief research officer of WPAi, told The Post the firm uses commercial respondent panels matched to voter files. Poll sampling was done to be representative of different races, geographic locations, genders, educational levels and ages, he said.
Respondents were asked: “Based on what you know today, do you agree or disagree that Democrats should nominate Governor Andrew Cuomo for president instead of Joe Biden?”
There were 361 Democratic respondents, 349 Republican respondents and 262 independents.
Among people of any party — including independents — who voted for Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016, the percentage favoring Cuomo increased to 57 percent.
Of those who voted for President Trump in 2016, 53 percent wanted Democrats to keep Biden.
Cuomo was also backed by core Democratic constituencies. Among black voters — who helped Biden defeat Democratic primary rival Sen. Bernie Sanders — 55 percent favored Cuomo, with just 45 percent wanting to keep Biden.
Among voters age 25 to 34 of any party, preference for Cuomo hit 67 percent. Fifty-seven percent of all women and 58 percent of Hispanic voters preferred Cuomo.
Among whites and people with college and graduate school degrees, there was a near-even split in preference.
The results build on the findings of a Rasmussen Reports poll conducted April 2-5, which found 46 percent of Democratic voters preferred Biden and 45 percent wanted Cuomo.
Poll results shared with The Post also rated approval or disapproval of how Biden and Cuomo are handling the coronavirus outbreak. For Cuomo, 54 percent of all respondents approved and 20 percent disapproved of his job. For Biden, 32 percent approved, 35 percent disapproved and 34 percent were unsure.
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