Despite intense interest from the news media, polling has been scant in several of the most notable Democratic primaries for House seats in New York City.
No polls have been released publicly in New York’s Sixth Congressional District, where the incumbent, Representative Grace Meng, is being challenged by Chuck Park, a progressive. The same is true in the Ninth District, where Representative Yvette Clarke is being challenged by Michael Goldfarb.
In races where polls do exist, many of them were not fielded independently — meaning they were sponsored by campaigns or by outside groups aligned with specific candidates, which often only release the numbers that help their preferred candidate.
Factor in the high number of undecided voters in many of the surveys — 43 percent in the most recent poll fielded for the Seventh Congressional District — and the major contests get even harder to predict.
In the open Seventh Congressional District, Claire Valdez, a state assemblywoman and Democratic Socialist, is facing Antonio Reynoso, the current Brooklyn borough president. Ms. Valdez is backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani, while Mr. Reynoso is the chosen successor of the district’s incumbent, Representative Nydia Velázquez, and is also endorsed by the Working Families Party.
Just two polls have been fielded in this district, and one is six months old. A Data for Progress poll commissioned by Justice Democrats, a group affiliated with Ms. Valdez, found Mr. Reynoso ahead by four percentage points about a week after the mayor officially endorsed Ms. Valdez in January. A more recent Emerson College poll, fielded independently in mid-May and sponsored by PIX 11 and Nexstar, found Ms. Valdez with a two percentage point lead.
Julie Won, a progressive City Council member, was at 13 percent in that same Emerson survey.
In the Tenth Congressional District, only two polls have been fielded in 2026. Brad Lander, a former New York City comptroller who is endorsed by Mr. Mamdani, is challenging the incumbent, Representative Dan Goldman, who is a more moderate Democrat. Mr. Lander led in both surveys, with a 34-point lead in the only independent poll that has been conducted in this race.
Mr. Lander also led, by a much smaller margin, in a poll commissioned by New Yorkers Fighting Back, a super PAC formed by allies of Mr. Goldman.
In the 13th District, where Darializa Avila Chevalier, a Democratic Socialist, is challenging Representative Adriano Espaillat, only three polls have been fielded — and all of them were sponsored by the candidates or PACs associated with them.
In late March, before Mr. Mamdani endorsed Ms. Avila Chevalier, Mr. Espaillat led by double digits in an Upswing Research survey commissioned by Ms. Avila Chevalier’s campaign. That shifted shortly after Mr. Mamdani’s endorsement, with a Data for Progress poll sponsored by Justice Democrats, a group affiliated with Ms. Avila Chevalier, finding her ahead by four points.
In the most recent poll of the race, Mr. Espaillat led Ms. Avila Chevalier by eight percentage points in a survey sponsored by the National Black Empowerment Action Fund, a group affiliated with his campaign. Sponsored surveys tend to release results that are advantageous to their candidate in some way, but that one, conducted by Mercury Public Affairs, had Mr. Espaillat, a five-term incumbent, at 35 percent support, with 38 percent undecided — a potentially troubling position for an incumbent.
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