Republican Sticker Mule CEO Anthony Constantino declared victory in New York’s 21st Congressional District, holding a more than 2-point lead around midnight Wednesday. A victory keeps a GOP seat that’s been held by Republican U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik for more than a decade.
Constantino defeated Democratic dairy farmer Blake Gendebien, 49% to 47%, according to unofficial returns.
In the final days of the race, polling and political analysis suggested the outcome would be close. In mid-October, Cook Political Report adjusted its rating of the district from “likely” to “lean” Republican, and a Siena Research Institute pollconducted in collaboration with WAMC, had Gendebien up by four points — though the poll had a 4.6% margin of error.
But Constantino held fast as a Trump-backed candidate in a district with a strong MAGA base.
On Monday, Vice President JD Vance spoke at a rally in Rome, New York — the largest city in the sprawling district — urging Republican voters to support Constantino at the polls.
At an election night watch party at his Amsterdam factory, Constantino, who self-funded his campaign, celebrated the win and berated members of the media.
“It should have been a 20- or 30-point victory, but they spent the whole time lying to the citizens of NY-21 about who Blake Gendebien (is), who I am, to make me spend $17 million of my own money,” said Constantino. “So, let me explain something to all of you. How would you like to spend $17 million, because you guys are a bunch of lying a–holes?”
President Donald Trump carried the 21st District by 20 points in 2024.
Constantino’s social-media-heavy campaign featured brash rhetoric against both his opponent and the press, while Gendebien’s approach was to engage less often with the press.
Among other promises, Constantino has vowed to deliver more reliable cellphone service throughout the North Country and oversee an overhaul of government websites.
Gendebien issued a statement acknowledging it appeared Constantino would “narrowly win.”
The Democrat said, in part, “I wish Anthony Constantino well in Congress, and I hope he’ll always put the North Country first.”
Argyle resident Alex Dobbs was at Constantino’s watch party at his Amsterdam factory Tuesday night. The registered Democrat, who works in Glens Falls, said Constantino was the better candidate.
“I have no idea what (Gendebein) is about. If I had anything to vote for, I would have considered it; I just didn’t have anything from him,” Dobbs said. “There was no sense of if I vote for him, he’s going to do this, or he wants this or he stands for this. We never heard that from him.”
Southern Adirondack Bureau Chief Aaron Shellow-Lavine joined Sam Dingman on Northeast Notebook to recap his field reporting at Constantino’s watch party.
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
Editor’s note: This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.
Dingman: Much has been said on our airwaves over the past 24 hours about the race for New York’s 21st congressional district seat, and Aaron Shellow-Lavine was at Anthony Constantino’s watch party last night. That is, of course, the Republican candidate who has claimed victory, even though the Associated Press has not yet called the race. Constantino was a non-traditional candidate who expectedly gave a non-traditional victory speech, and Aaron, you were there for all of it. Talk a little bit about the final minutes of your field reporting last night.
Shellow-Lavine: So, Constantino didn’t actually come out until 11 p.m., the race at first was seemingly in Gendebien’s favor. As a lot of those early voting numbers came out, he had a 25% lead. By 10:30, that lead had closed to one-tenth of a percent. And then, with just minutes before Constantino came out, his or at least Republican sort of campaign aficionado Alex DeGrasse came out and said, “You know, I’m very confident that the remaining votes coming in are going to be in Constantino’s favor.” And so far, he has seemingly been correct on that. Constantino began his speech as you might expect somebody in his status to do by thanking his staff, his family, then President Donald Trump, who endorsed him way back in the primary.
Donald Trump’s son, Don Jr., who has had a relationship with Constantino through various means, and was at the Rome, New York rally where Don and the vice president, who he also thanked in his speech, and then Roger Stone, who has seemingly been a guru for Constantino throughout this entire race. After that, the Constantino’s tone sort of turned sour. He turned on his primary opponent Robert Smullen. He made a couple of remarks about his opponent Blake Gendebien. He made a couple of remarks about people who voted for Blake Gendebien, though he vowed to win them over in the next two years. He said that they had made a very big mistake for voting for for Gendebien, though again, like I said, that’s one way to start. He promised to win them over. He then turned his sights on the media that were present.
Constantino: Listen, you scumbags. Telling people the truth is the right thing to do. When I expose my phone number, you’re supposed to say that. In fact, I had to listen to you a—holes say dairy farmer Blake Gendebien — I mean, he’s not a dairy farmer. His parents were dairy farmers. All his neighbors told me this guy never gets on a tractor ever. He don’t show up. His parents did it. He can’t even say what percent of the farm he owns, but you wouldn’t say that because you’re a bunch of f—ing a—holes.
Shellow-Lavine: So as he has taken to in the past couple in in the last rather couple of days of this race, he referred to us, the press, as the quote “evil media,” not just the “lying media,” as the president has sort of coined, I guess, pointing out some specific members of the press, even throwing out a NewsChannel 7 reporter, Garrett Domblewski, and his cameraman. We got sound of that happening as well.
Constantino: Actually, do me a favor. This guy is so he’s looking at me. Get kick him, kick him out. Just kick him out, kick him out, get him out of here, kick him out right now. You’re just, you’re just a rude person. Get out of here. If you want to be tough on me, get out, get out, go right now. I’m not playing games. You deleted two of my interviews. Get him, get him out, get him out right now. Get him out. Kick him out. Kick him out.
Dingman: Did I interpret that soundbite correctly? That Constantino just didn’t like the way this guy was looking at him?
Shellow-Lavine: Pretty much. There are a couple different news outlets that he’s taken issue with. I mean, the Times Union, the Gazette. There are a number of reporters that, had he probably seen in the gaggle, he also would have called out. But you know, his targeting of Channel 7 there seemingly revolves around the station, deleting two interviews that he had done with them in the lead up to the race. A lot of his animosity towards the press seemingly had come from the fact that a lot of reporting had been done in those final moments of the race on the district closing and the race becoming close. As of right now, we’ve still got a couple more votes to count. Constantino’s lead is around sort of 2% or 3%. This is a district that Elise Stefanik won for the first time in 2014, with a more than 20-point margin. Every reelection, she coasted through to reelection, getting a double-digit margin, double digits closer to 20.
Dingman: And just to be clear, Gendebien has not yet conceded. Correct?
Shellow-Lavine: Right. He’s wished Constantino well and thanked all of his supporters who came out. Though he hasn’t exactly conceded, I think something along the lines of, ‘I owe it to everybody who who has supported this race to not drop out until every single vote has been counted.’
Dingman: We’ll obviously be keeping an eye on that, but before we get further, we should talk about a reporter who Constantino took direct aim at. This is a reporter for the great publication City & State, Kate Lisa. Kate Lisa was on our show just last week. Talk a little bit about how this unfolded because it was fairly intense.
Shellow-Lavine: So, while he didn’t name the Channel 7 reporters, that may have just been sort of a general animosity towards the organization. I know on his Monday rally, he again said it would be great if we could just delete the Times Union and the Gazette because they are such nasty outlets to him. He called Kate Lisa out by name. He pointed at Kate Lisa and said, “Kate Lisa is an a—hole.” We’re not going to play that clip. We’ve already met our bleep quota on air for today. But I was able to catch up with Lisa to discuss what it was like late last night getting called out like that by the Congress apparent congressman-elect.
Lisa: I expected it because I knew he was upset about those things. I thought maybe he, I did think he would call it more. But yeah, it’s just his tactic. He’s a former professional fighter, and you really see all the different ways, the strategies of how he tries to get under the skin of somebody and of his of his opponent, and it’s it’s effective. But you know, I appreciate his candor and his honesty, which is why I could smile about it. If that makes any sense.
Dingman: I have to say, interesting to hear Kate say she was a little surprised he didn’t come at her harder.
Shellow-Lavine: Kate, I mean, to so much of her credit, took it with a smile and a laugh. Constantino acknowledged that actually, you know, he said, “well, Kate’s got a good sense of humor about it, but these guys get him out of here.” She tied it back to sort of her first political reporting being on Donald Trump back in 2016. So, it’s not necessarily a style of politics that she’s all that new with. Before we get further on, Constantino ended his speech. These are the sort of the two final moments, significant moments from his speech, giving some interesting shoutouts.
Constantino: I’m fighting for New York. I want to bring people back New York. I want to bring excitement back to New York. I want to bring jobs back to New York. And I gotta say this: I know it’s already been asked, but I think President Trump should consider freeing Diddy. This is historic New Yorker that did great things for New York State.
Shellow-Lavine: Musician P. Diddy, who was arrested on crossing state lines for sex trafficking, essentially, and then he gave another shoutout to a now very famous mayor.
Constantino: Hey, Zohran (Mamdani,) the last time there was a battle between North vs. South, the North won. You understand me?
Dingman: That is, of course, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani that he was referring to.
Shellow-Lavine: So, I think also just going a little bit back to what Kate was saying, you know, Constantino is a fighter. When we think of sort of the WWE and a lot of the macho caricatures that go into that sport and that art. I’m not the first person to compare Donald Trump’s style to that of just sort of creating controversy. That really felt like to me that was the final moment. He walked out after challenging Zohran, seemingly in a way that I would think a heavyweight fighter might call out the next person he wants to fight, so Constantino is already keeping that ball of controversy rolling.