Gillibrand less well liked in N.Y. than Democratic rivals
Quinnipiac poll shows she trails challengers in bid for president
Even in her home state, U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is less popular than most of her competitors for the Democratic presidential nomination, according to a new poll.
The Quinnipiac University poll released on Thursday found that New York’s Democratic voters have a more favorable view of New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former-vice President Joe Biden than their junior senator.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who is flirting with a presidential bid, is less popular than all of those candidates, with Democrats split on their view of him.
Gillibrand kicked off her presidential campaign in January on the “Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” and relaunched her bid this week after failing to gain any national traction in the polls after two months.
The poll found that 29 percent of New Yorkers view Gillibrand favorably, despite her having received about two-thirds of the vote in her November re-election bid. Among Democrats, who control her fate in the state’s primary, 42 percent say they like her, 36 percent feel they don’t know enough about her and 20 percent view her negatively.
Biden, who hasn’t officially jumped into the 2020 campaign, is the most popular among his party’s potential nominees, with 82 percent of New York’s Democrats viewing him positively. Sanders is at 69 percent and Booker is at 50 percent.
Warren’s number are comparable to Gillibrand’s standing among New York Democrats, and California Sen. Kamala Harris is also about the same, although she is less well known.
Texas Sen. Beto O’rourke, who is the most recent addition to the campaign, has a net favorability of 21 percentage points, but more than half of New York voters don’t have an opinion about him yet.
The poll was conducted between March 13 and 18, and has a margin of error of 3.8 percentage points.