I can confirm. I am upstate NY and we hate cuomo up here. He lost 53 upstate counties in his last run for governor. However, because of NYC, and a couple of large upstate and western NY cities which are run by democrats (and are high crime, poverty-infested dumps), he won.

Upstate actually has tried to start a succession movement to separate from NYC a few times, similar to what the people west of the California coast are trying to do.