New Yorkers do not think Governor Andrew Cuomo should step down amid two scandals involving accusations of sexual harassment and underestimating deaths in nursing homes, but they also do not think he should run for re-election.
Fifty-nine percent of registered voters in New York think the governor should remain in office, while only 40% say he should step down, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released on Thursday.
Cuomo’s approval rating has plummeted amid the scandals, with only 45% of New Yorkers approving his performance now, compared with 72% in the early months of the coronavirus pandemic.
Although New Yorkers feel that Cuomo should remain in office, 59% say he should not run for a fourth term in 2022.
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Three women have accused Cuomo of inappropriate touches and offensive comments in the past few days, but the governor has been adamant about staying in office.
“I was not elected by politicians, I was elected by the people of the state of New York,” he said at a news conference on Wednesday. “I will not resign.”
Governor Andrew Cuomo apologized for the “pain I caused” amid allegations of sexual harassment, but said he would not resign on Wednesday.
Cuomo said he now understands that “he acted in a way that made people uncomfortable” and that he apologizes “truly and deeply” for it.
More than 30 New York state lawmakers, including Republicans and Democrats, are calling for Cuomo’s resignation.
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The allegations of sexual harassment come after the Cuomo administration was accused of deliberately underestimating deaths in nursing homes in the state.
“It seems that the focus and outcry of Democrats in New York State has generated so many outrages about sexual harassment, and they have totally ignored what he did involving the nursing home scandal, his disregard for his attempts to have audiences “Grace Colucci, whose father died last spring after contracting coronavirus in a New York nursing home, previously told Fox News.
The New York governor won national acclaim at the start of the pandemic for his press conferences, but New Yorkers’ approval of his response to the coronavirus also plummeted.
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Only 56% of voters approve of the way he deals with the pandemic now, up from 81% in May last year.
The Quinnipiac survey was conducted on March 2 and 3.
Evie Fordham and Fox News’ The Associated Press contributed to this report.