{"id":692,"date":"2026-09-03T09:09:49","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T09:09:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businessrelocationdigest.com\/?p=692"},"modified":"2026-09-03T09:09:49","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T09:09:49","slug":"meet-the-cop-loving-north-country-dairy-farmer-democrat-trying-to-flip-stefaniks-seat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businessrelocationdigest.com\/?p=692","title":{"rendered":"Meet the cop-loving North Country dairy farmer Democrat trying to flip Stefanik\u2019s seat"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

In New York\u2019s largest congressional district, you see the campaign yard signs before you see just about anything else.<\/p>\n

Read more Blakeman sends fake pied-\u00e0-terre letters in campaign stunt<\/a><\/p>\n

Staked at the end of driveways and on corners of naked intersections of roads that stretch for tens of miles through one-stoplight towns, sprawling farm fields and the Adirondacks.<\/p>\n

Rep. Elise Stefanik\u2019s name used to appear everywhere, since replaced with the name of President Donald Trump\u2019s choice to succeed her, the eccentric \u2013 and often controversial \u2013 Anthony Constantino, who owns\u00a0 the T-shirt printing company Sticker Mule, and is a cage-fight promoter, musician and congressional candidate on the side.<\/p>\n

But this cycle, it\u2019s hard not to notice an uptick in signs for the Democratic nominee, Blake Gendebien, whose logo features the outline of a traditional red barn.<\/p>\n

Gendebien is running as a moderate who wants to secure the border, \u201cworship\u201d law enforcement and keep dairy, beer and other traded goods cheap. And Gendebien thinks that profile, facing off against a wild-card candidate like Constantino in what\u2019s shaping up to be an anti-Trump, blue wave year, could be the perfect recipe to flip the 21st Congressional District, one of New York\u2019s reddest seats.<\/p>\n

Gendebien is a dairy farmer by trade, and visiting his farm in Lisbon, just 20 minutes south of the Canadian border, it\u2019s easy to see where the inspiration for the barn on his signs came from.<\/p>\n

He arrived to meet me driving a green John Deere Gator, right at noon. Maeve Kelly, his spokesperson, said he doesn\u2019t do any campaign work before then, using the mornings to keep his farm running.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see those wooden silos off in the distance over there, the red ones?\u201d Gendebien asked, pointing northwest. \u201cThat\u2019s where I grew up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gendebien, who describes himself as \u201ca pragmatic reflection of the district,\u201d was born and raised in the district, on the farm his parents bought after stints as Peace Corps volunteers in Bolivia. The same can\u2019t be said about Democratic candidates in recent cycles. Manhattan cannabis attorney Paula Collins was brand new to the district when she ran in 2024. Two years earlier, former CIA officer Matt Castelli couldn\u2019t shake his connection to the Hudson Valley \u2013 Stefanik slammed him as a \u201cFar Left Downstate Democrat from Poughkeepsie.\u201d<\/p>\n

Apart from farming, Gendebien previously served as vice chair of Agri-Mark \u2013 a $1 billion dairy cooperative \u2013 served on his local school board in Lisbon, coached basketball and founded a nonprofit alongside his wife, Carmen, for victims of pediatric cancer.<\/p>\n

After graduating from Penn State, Gendebien returned home and grew the family farm from 50 dairy cows to 500 \u2013 which, with help from his 15 employees, netted him north of 38,000 pounds of milk daily. That goes toward the more than 16 billion pounds of milk produced annually in upstate New York, making it the region\u2019s largest agricultural sector.<\/p>\n

Grant Reeher, a Syracuse University political scientist, said that kind of connection is \u201cessential\u201d in a district like this one.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe North Country\u2019s different from the rest of the state \u2013 it\u2019s really important that the person that represents it, at least for the voters, has a real connection,\u201d Reeher said.<\/p>\n

The 21st District is the largest congressional district by area in New York \u2013 and one of the largest on the East Coast \u2013 stretching from the towns west of Albany through the Adirondacks up to the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Canadian border.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there was going to be a recipe for a Democrat to win that district, it would be a guy like this in a year like this,\u201d Reeher added.<\/p>\n

The North Country has long been represented by Republicans \u2013 and Trump won the district by double-digit margins all three times he\u2019s run, including a 21-point win in 2024. While Democrats remember that Barack Obama won the district twice, albeit with slightly different lines, the last Democrat \u2013 and the only one in the 21st century \u2013 to represent the North Country\u2019s sprawling district was Bill Owens, who won a special election in 2009 when a Republican and Conservative Party candidate split the vote against him. He narrowly was reelected to two full terms before retiring in 2014.<\/p>\n

Since then, Stefanik has held the safe red seat, consistently winning by double digits and bringing the district national recognition as chair of the House Republican Conference and staunch Trump ally.<\/p>\n

When asked about Stefanik\u2019s time in Washington, D.C., Gendebien said that \u201cshe worked incredibly hard.\u201d Specifically, he noted her advocacy for first responder resources that he said saved his mother when she had a stroke. \u201cI appreciate that,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Mid-interview, one of Gendebien\u2019s three sons, Miles, came out of the house to ask his dad if he could borrow his truck to get a haircut. Gendebien told me that Miles, who graduated from college last spring, had just returned from helping a farmer in a nearby town.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re crossing the aisle,\u201d Gendebien joked, revealing that the farmer happens to be a Republican. \u201cThat\u2019s important in this district.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Harry Nespoli reflects on the evolution of the labor movement<\/a><\/p>\n

In mid-August, I trailed Gendebien at the Bannertown Fair parade in Mayfield, about 50 miles north of Albany, as he lagged behind the other Democrats he was marching with.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou guys need some candy,\u201d he told one man, who pulled a lit cigar from his pursed lips to let a smile crack through. \u201cCan I have one of the cigars?\u201d Gendebien jokingly asked. He and his wife tossed candy to almost every kid they saw, and talked to their voting-age parents too before jogging to catch up with his partisans.<\/p>\n

At one point, Gendebien stopped to talk with a woman in her mid-20s. On her truck flew a \u201cblue lives matter\u201d flag. Below it, on the lawn itself, was one of Gendebien\u2019s campaign signs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt didn\u2019t surprise me at all \u2013 nobody supports law enforcement more than I do,\u201d Gendebien told me later when I asked him about the interaction. \u201cOur law enforcement needs to be worshipped and they need to be put on a pedestal and supported.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gendebien also finds common ground with conservatives on immigration enforcement, which he said the Trump administration \u201chas done a good job of, and I support.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we also need to streamline the legal process,\u201d he said, adding that his wife, Carmen, \u201cescaped communism\u201d when she legally immigrated to the United States from Cuba.<\/p>\n

However, he doesn\u2019t want his immigration opinions confused with the other main \u201cborder issue\u201d in the 21st Congressional District: tariffs.<\/p>\n

The U.S. currently exports more than $1 billion of dairy products annually into Canada, which could be hindered after the Canadian government introduced 50% retaliatory tariffs on U.S. milk and cheese products last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur relationship with Ontario and Quebec is so very important to the economy here,\u201d Gendebien said, noting that even the local favorite beer, Labatt Blue, is imported \u2013 though he prefers Coors Banquet himself. \u201cNow we have this yo-yo effect and we can\u2019t plan for our businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Being a Democrat in New York state means a lot of different things in 2026 \u2013 especially given the rise of democratic socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. And the Democratic Socialists of America had their own slate of victories this summer, including in cities upstate.<\/p>\n

However, Gendebien said he isn\u2019t worried about being tied to that brand of Democratic politics. \u201cI don\u2019t even know what the full acronym of DSA stands for,\u201d he said, adding that he hadn\u2019t heard of it until six months ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew York City\u2019s problems are 6 1\/2 hours away, completely different issues to what we\u2019re facing here in the North Country,\u201d he said<\/p>\n

But Gendebien isn\u2019t just distancing himself from the socialists. He declined to comment on whether he\u2019d support Hakeem Jeffries to be speaker of the House if Democrats win it back this fall.<\/p>\n

Jeffries, the current House minority leader, may need his vote for his speakership bid to be successful \u2013 especially as a handful of progressive candidates prefer a new face. But even if Gendebien isn\u2019t willing to stand with him while running, Jeffries is backing Gendebien. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee labeled the 21st District as a \u201cdistrict in play\u201d last month, a sign that more PAC money could be headed up north.<\/p>\n

But Gendebien has also had his own success fundraising at the local level, raising nearly $5.5 million from thousands of individual donors as of the most recent filings in July, while his opponent, Constantino, has self-funded with $12 million.<\/p>\n

Constantino has been recently caught up in controversy \u2013 including an online video with comedian Ricky Berwick where he jokes about being given a \u201cpass\u201d to use a slur for people with disabilities \u2013 and his close ties to the unpopular president could fuel the opposition. In the primary, the state Republican Party supported Constantino\u2019s more mainstream opponent, Assembly Member Robert Smullen.<\/p>\n

The parade in Mayfield came just days after the first public poll of the cycle had Gendebien with a slight lead over Constantino, but a second poll by a different outfit found Constantino with a comfortable lead. Still, Gendebien is adamant his campaign is the right strategy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are not Democrat issues, they\u2019re not Republican issues,\u201d he said, \u201cthey\u2019re North Country issues and upstate New York issues, and that\u2019s what I want to fight for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more City Council grills Mamdani\u2019s pick for key housing position<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Does Blake Gendebien have the right profile to beat Anthony Constantino in a district Trump won three times?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3,92],"tags":[9,7,93],"class_list":["post-692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2026-congressional-midterm-elections","category-new-york-state","category-politics","tag-2026-congressional-midterm-elections","tag-new-york-state","tag-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nMeet the cop-loving North Country dairy farmer Democrat trying to flip Stefanik\u2019s seat - Business Relocation Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/businessrelocationdigest.com\/?p=692\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Meet the cop-loving North Country dairy farmer Democrat trying to flip Stefanik\u2019s seat - 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