In recent months, Adams’s approval rating plunged to record lows. In December 2023, a Quinnipiac poll found that 28 percent of voters approved and 58 percent disapproved of the mayor’s job performance, the lowest level for a mayor since its polling began in 1996. In MI’s poll this month, 24 percent of likely voters approve of Adams, while 73 percent disapprove. Only one in four has a favorable impression of Adams, while 69 percent view him unfavorably, including 44 percent reporting a very unfavorable opinion. Tellingly, when asked whether voters would select Adams or another candidate in an election held today, only 16 percent would opt to reelect the mayor, compared with 65 percent who would select someone else and 19 percent who aren’t sure.

By contrast, President Joe Biden and Governor Kathy Hochul get better marks. If November’s presidential election were held today, 52 percent of respondents would vote to reelect the president, more than double the 25 percent backing former President Donald Trump. Biden enjoys a 52 percent–47 percent favorability rating in New York, even as the federal government has failed to stem the migrant crisis or provide meaningful funding to the city to cover shelter costs, which Adams has repeatedly decried. The governor’s 43 percent favorable and 52 percent unfavorable rating falls between that of the president and mayor.