Vice President JD Vance and Donald Trump Jr. stopped in Rome, New York, Monday morning to stump for Republican New York 21st Congressional District candidate Anthony Constantino, among other local candidates.
Constantino, a brash Trump loyalist who has been endorsed by the president, faces Lisbon dairy farmer Blake Gendebien in a North Country region that Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik has represented since 2015.
But the Cook Political Report last month changed its rating of the district from “likely” to “lean Republican,” and a Siena Research Institute poll showed the Democrat up by four points, though that poll had a 4.6% margin of error.
Vance’s speech Monday morning largely focused on pitching Constantino as a President Donald Trump-appointed candidate aligned with MAGA priorities. He contrasted that with Gendebein’s purported loyalties to national Democratic figures.
“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 [Sen. Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer, to [House Minority Leader] Hakeem Jeffries and to [Former Speaker] 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,” Vance told the crowd.
Attendee John Bevilacqua said he was fully committed to voting for Constantino after attending Monday’s rally.
“Unfortunately, the Democrats have gone sour. I used to be a Democrat. They’ve just gone too far to the left,” he said. “All the values. The border, the economy, everything that’s going on. Iran, if we didn’t go after them, they’d be killing us.”
The vice president’s visit comes as GOP candidates in key races across the country slip in the polls as Election Day approaches, threatening to upset Republican control of both chambers of Congress.
Stefanik has won reelection comfortably in the North Country since the 2014 election, but after a brief bid for governor last year, the she opted not to run again for Congress.
