The race to succeed Rep. Elise Stefanik (R., N.Y.) is a potential long-shot for Democrats as they attempt to expand the battle for the House. But the Democrats’ nominee’s lengthy history of far-left stances — including claims that he is running against the Trump administration, could prove politically toxic in a district that the president carried by 20 of points just two years ago.
In the final weeks of the 2026 election, Democrat Blake Gendebien is running as a moderate candidate, against Republican Anthony Constantino, who rode President Donald Trump’s endorsement to a primary victory earlier this year.
Gendebien, in contrast, said that one of the reasons he is running for Congress is to stop Trump’s agenda. “We need to pump the brakes on this [Trump] administration’s really strange policies, and that is why I’m running,” he told voters.
Constantino, a staunch Trump supporter, is likely to highlight those remarks, as well as how Gendebien appeared open to impeaching both Trump and his cabinet secretaries, as long as doing so would not undermine his efficiency as a lawmaker, Gendebien caveated.
“People have asked me, do I want to impeach Kristi Noem?” he asked. “Do I want to impeach RFK Jr.? Do I want to impeach Donald Trump? I want to be the most effective legislator that I can be to do good things for the residents in the United States, and New York’s 21st District.”
He then added that “the only thing I worry about is a campaign of retribution over a campaign of support and effective legislation. So if, if, I’m going to do things that are in support of effective legislation, I want to hold people accountable for mistakes and incompetence, but not at the expense of getting things [done] — of being an effective legislator. So we’ll see what happens. I am laser focused on what’s right.”
Gendebien, whose financial disclosures suggest that his net worth could be in the tens of millions of dollars, also used some of his financial largesse to donate to a far-left candidate who was easily defeated by Stefanik in 2020.
Gendebien previously donated to Tedra Cobb, the Democratic nominee who was also a member of the far-left Working Families Party, which politicians like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) have praised for being “the closest thing there is to a political party that believes in my vision of democratic socialism.”
In an interview with the Reporter, Constantino previously spoke about his agenda for New York’s 21st District. In the interview, he took the opposite tack that Gendebien, who appears open to impeaching Trump under the right circumstances, did.
“President Trump can’t fight the battle on his own,” Constantino said. “He needs other people to help him,” he said. Constantino said that he is running for office in part because he does not “like to sit on the sidelines and complain, and there’s a lot going wrong in New York State.”
