Vance's Last Day on the Trail Started in Rome, New York — Defending a Deep-Red Seat Democrats Think They Can Steal
Vice President JD Vance flew into Rome, New York, on Monday morning to rescue a House race Republicans expected to keep easily: NY-21, where Anthony Constantino faces dairy farmer Blake Gendebien in a district that has tightened to 'lean Republican.'
The surest sign a safe seat is not safe is who shows up on the last day. Vice President JD Vance spent Monday morning — his final day on the midterm campaign trail — in Rome, New York, rallying for Republican congressional candidate Anthony Constantino in the state's 21st District, a North Country seat that President Donald Trump carried by 21 percentage points and that Congresswoman Elise Stefanik has held since 2015. Vance appeared with Donald Trump Jr. and Energy Secretary Chris Wright at the former Griffiss Air Force Base.
The race earned the visit. Constantino, the 44-year-old founder and CEO of Sticker Mule and a Trump-endorsed, self-funded candidate who has put millions of his own money into the run, faces Blake Gendebien, a dairy farmer from Lisbon. The Cook Political Report moved the district from "likely" to "lean Republican" last month, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee elevated Gendebien to its top-tier candidate list in early October, and a Siena Research Institute poll showed the Democrat up by four points — inside the poll's 4.6-point margin of error, but ahead in a district Republicans carried by more than twenty.
Vance's pitch, as WAMC reported it, framed the local race as a national message. "You have an opportunity not just to elect a patriot to fight for you in congress, you have an opportunity to send a message to Chuck Schumer, to Hakeem Jeffries and to Nancy Pelosi that here in the New York 21st Congressional District we are fighting for people who love the United States of America, not those who hate it," he told the crowd. He promoted the administration's agenda on immigration, cross-border drug trafficking and trade — "He has fought for American workers. Let's fight for Anthony tomorrow at the ballot box" — and took a swipe at Governor Kathy Hochul without mentioning her Republican challenger, Bruce Blakeman, by name.
Rome is in Oneida County, hours from the five boroughs — but NY-21 is one of the races that will decide the House, and the House is decided seat by seat in districts exactly like this one. A vice president does not spend the final morning of a campaign in a district his party expects to hold by twenty points. By Tuesday night, New Yorkers will know whether the rescue worked — and voters in the city will be watching the same returns board, because the majority Vance was protecting is the majority their own representatives will serve in, or against.
