President Biden may be struggling nationally, but he is more popular in New York than local politicians like Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), according to a new statewide poll.
The survey, conducted last week by Public Policy Polling, found sweeping concern among New Yorkers about the influence of big tech in the government, and showed the president with a 49% favorable rating and a 41% unfavorable rating.
The data perhaps offered a counterpoint to concerns that Biden’s sagging national popularity might hamper local Democrats in the fall midterm election. Biden’s national favorability rating was 44% last week, according to YouGov polling data, down from 52% a year earlier.
In the New York poll, Schumer was viewed favorably by 46% of respondents and unfavorably by 40%, while Ocasio-Cortez’s ratings were 39% favorable and 41% unfavorable.
The Tech Oversight Project, a nonprofit that is focused on boosting pro-competition tech legislation, said it had commissioned the survey in response to a brewing legislative battle between Big Tech and the antitrust crusaders.
In the poll, 76% of New Yorkers said they believed Big Tech executives have too much sway over government policy. And 78% said they were “very concerned” about Big Tech companies spending hundreds of millions of dollars to lobby the government.
Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Facebook, received a 12% favorability rating; Jeff Bezos, the former head of Amazon, had a favorability rating of 14%.
Pointing to the figures, the Tech Oversight Project called on Schumer to bring to a vote legislation targeting Big Tech powers like Apple, Google and Facebook.
“Schumer has a decadeslong history of turning issues New Yorkers care about into legislative action, ” Sacha Haworth, executive director of the Tech Oversight Project, said in a statement, adding that she is “optimistic that the majority leader will work with other Senate leaders to quickly bring the antitrust package to the floor.”
Angelo Roefaro, a spokesman for Schumer, said in a statement that the Senate majority leader is working with Biden and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) on the “best ways to ensure robust competition and hold big corporations, including big tech, accountable through legislation or other means.”
“Sen. Schumer believes that for far too long the economic system has been skewed, particularly by Donald Trump, to benefit the biggest corporations and wealthiest few while average Americans are left behind,” Roefaro said in the statement.
Schumer, who is up for reelection this year, appears to be rolling to a fifth term without any serious threat from his left. Ocasio-Cortez, the most high-profile progressive in New York’s congressional delegation, has not made any public move to challenge him, despite chatter.
The new survey could signal a small but positive sign for local Democrats worried that challenging months for the White House will depress Democratic enthusiasm in the midterm election.
Thirty House Democrats have said they will voluntarily relinquish their seats this year, including Rep. Kathleen Rice of Long Island, who announced her exit on Tuesday. Thirteen House Republicans have said the same.
