San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie’s popularity is down about 10 percentage points compared to its recent high, new polls show.
An independent poll by the University of Southern California that surveyed 454 likely San Francisco voters this month found that 63 percent approve of the job Lurie is doing. Another poll by David Binder Research conducted also this month put it at 67 percent.
Before these, 74 percent of San Franciscans backed Lurie in a San Francisco Chronicle poll from this spring. A November 2025 poll conducted by David Binder Research and a July 2025 poll by the Chronicle both found Lurie’s approval rating above 70 percent, at 71 percent and 73 percent, respectively.
“There has been a slight decline when you take a look at the polls over time,” said Christian Grose, lead pollster of the independent poll and a professor of political science and public policy at the University of Southern California.
Still, he said, “a mayor with greater than 60 percent approval or more in our current times when almost nothing cracks 50 percent approval is good.”
Lurie’s political spokesperson Max Szabo said in a text message, “Voters overwhelmingly approve of the job Mayor Lurie is doing because they’re seeing progress — from cleaner streets and more officers to a downtown on the rise. He’s grateful for the outpouring of support but remains focused on the work, not his poll numbers.”
Jason McDaniel, a political science professor at San Francisco State University, cautioned about reading too much into the results. “These are generally good polls, but there may be less here than you think,” he said.
The five polls were conducted by three different pollsters, who may have applied different methodologies and surveyed different respondents. Prior polls surveyed all of San Francisco, for example, while the most recent USC poll surveyed California’s 11th congressional district, which excludes the Excelsior, Visitacion Valley and Portola.
“It is important not to draw too many conclusions from comparing different polls like this without digging into the specifics,” McDaniel said.
He pointed out that some of the results are within the margin of error. It “suggests that the softening approval trend you see could actually just be normal random sampling error that is within the expected range,” he said.
Lurie experienced a quick rise in popularity after assuming office in January last year. Two polls commissioned by GrowSF found Lurie’s favorability rose from 55 percent in February to 67 percent in July. A David Binder poll this past June found that a similar number of respondents, 65 percent, had a favorable opinion of Lurie.
Favorability measures people’s overall opinion of him, while approval measures people’s perception of his job performance.
Part of that support may be due to a perception of recovery, especially downtown and in street conditions — Lurie has made that a focus since day one. Approval of Lurie’s performance in revitalizing downtown rose from 63 percent to 71 percent between 2025 and 2026, and approval for keeping neighborhoods clean rose from 59 percent to 67 percent, according to the Chronicle’s two polls.
In recent months, however, the rent surge — Lurie declared a “rent emergency” in September — has made life harder for tenants and may have rendered Lurie’s “San Francisco is coming back” message less persuasive.
Also, Lurie has become more politically active — and therefore divisive — as mayor than as a candidate who was an acceptable choice for both progressive-leaning and moderate-leaning voters.
His charter-reform proposals, opposition to November’s affordable-housing measure Proposition I, and supervisor endorsements have given people, especially progressive-leaning voters, more reasons to disagree with him.
He also endorsed District 8 supervisor candidate Manny Yekutiel this summer after a sexual misconduct allegation surfaced, an action that reportedly convinced another man to come forward with his own allegations, derailing Yekutiel’s candidacy. Last year, Lurie nominated Beya Alcaraz for District 4 supervisor, but she was forced to resign after only seven days in office. This gave the impression of an office ill-suited to vetting candidates.
The October USC poll shows Lurie now receiving his lowest approval among respondents self-identified as “very liberal,” with 31 percent strongly disapproving of him and 22 percent somewhat disapproving.
It also suggests that a higher share of Republican voters approve of Lurie than Democratic voters, at 73 percent versus 63 percent. His approval is also higher among men, people over 50, non-Black respondents, those with an income higher than $200,000 and those who hold a bachelor’s degree or higher.
Seventy-five percent of those who strongly approve of Lurie prefer state Sen. Scott Wiener in the congressional race, while 88 percent of those who strongly disapprove of Lurie prefer Supervisor Connie Chan.
Additional reporting by Io Yeh Gilman.