{"id":206671,"date":"2026-04-22T23:57:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T23:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/206671\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T23:57:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T23:57:08","slug":"trump-endorsement-shaking-up-n-y-21st-district","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/206671\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump endorsement shaking up N.Y. 21st District?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a departure from New York Republicans, President Donald Trump has caused a stir in New York’s 21st Congressional District primary race by endorsing Sticker Mule CEO Anthony Constantino\u00a0over New York state Assemblyman Robert Smullen<\/a> to replace U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s certainly disappointing, but fundamentally nothing has changed for this campaign,\u201d said Smullen.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn paper, there\u2019s no question, Robert Smullen is the stronger of the candidate in terms of how political scientists would tend to view them,\u201d said Syracuse University political science professor Grant Reeher. \u201cHe\u2019s gotten a seat in the Assembly. Those are pretty big districts, he has political experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

With more experience and considered the better candidate by some GOP members, Reeher explains why he thinks President Trump is backing Constantino over Smullen.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis style as a candidate seems to be more like Donald Trump in terms of the looseness of his language, saying things that are quite provocative, and that sometimes get him into trouble,\u201d said Reeher. \u201cAnd so, in all those ways, I think they\u2019re more of a match.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reeher said he also believes Trump values the large electric sign Constantino placed on top of a building on Elk Street in Amsterdam supporting the president during his 2024 campaign.<\/p>\n

In a statement to Capital Tonight, New York Republican Party Chair Ed Cox said:<\/p>\n

“We endorsed and will continue to work with Robert Smullen as the best candidate to represent the people of NY-21 and the candidate most viable in the general election.”<\/p>\n

Smullen has also been backed by the state Conservative Party.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe strongly feel in Bob Smullen. We are supporting an individual who has the background, experience and knowledge to be an outstanding Congressman. We look forward to him joining the GOP Majority in January,” Party Chair Gerry Kassar said in a statement<\/p>\n

With the endorsement, Reeher said internal conflict in the GOP party could weaken their chances of securing the seat, making it easier for a Democrat to win it.<\/p>\n

Smullen weighed in.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really won\u2019t.\u201d he said. \u201cWe think that we are going to win this primary and that will be that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Constantino was unavailable for an interview with Capital Tonight. His campaign shared a statement where he said in part: \u201cI was honored to receive an unexpected phone call from President Trump, in which he jovially told me that he was giving me his full endorsement,\u201d said Constantino. \u201cHis words were better than I expected.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the Democrats side, Blake Gendebien and Stuart Amoriell are running for the seat.<\/p>\n

Primary elections are on Tuesday, June 23.<\/p>\n

Smullen said he has petitioned on the Conservative Party line and will be on the ballot in November.<\/p>\n

The 21st Congressional District is made up of most of the North Country and parts of the greater Capital Region and Mohawk Valley.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a departure from New York Republicans, President Donald Trump has caused a stir in New York’s 21st…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[109,116,858,38490,9,11,10,49,51,50,12,5304,2022,112,87,27,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-206671","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-app-local-state-politics","9":"tag-app-ny-state-of-politics","10":"tag-congress","11":"tag-decision-2026","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-news","15":"tag-new-york-state","16":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","17":"tag-new-york-state-news","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-nicole-neuman","20":"tag-northern-ny","21":"tag-ny-state-of-politics","22":"tag-politics","23":"tag-top-stories","24":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}