New York State Assemblyman Robert Smullen has ended his bid for Congress.<\/p>\n
The Republican lost in a primary contest for New York\u2019s 21st District seat to Amsterdam businessman Anthony Constantino last month.<\/p>\n
In a statement shared Friday morning, Smullen said he would not continue his bid on the Conservative Party line.<\/p>\n
The retired U.S. Marine colonel said, \u201cI am deeply honored to have met with President Trump and grateful for our discussions. I am confident in President Trump\u2019s vision for this country and am energized about keeping NY-21 in Republican hands and finding an alternative path to continue public service myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smullen\u2019s bid for Congress drew the support of a majority of Republican county committees in the sprawling northern New York district, but President Trump endorsed newcomer Constantino over the state lawmaker.<\/p>\n
Constantino released a statement thanking Smullen for withdrawing from the race, saying in part, \u201cIt was a hard fought campaign that sharpened my skills and taught me a lot. I thank you for all your effort in this campaign and ongoing service to our nation. We created tremendous interest and made people excited to be Republicans!\u201d<\/p>\n
Constantino and Smullen traded barbs throughout the contentious primary campaign season.<\/p>\n
Following Constantino\u2019s victory, Republican officials have coalesced around the Sticker Mule CEO and political upstart.<\/p>\n
Constantino sought President Trump\u2019s endorsement with a \u201cVote for Trump\u201d sign atop his Amsterdam business, presented him with a 7-vote-bronze statue, and recorded a rap album called, \u201cThank You President Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n
Constantino will face Democrat Blake Gendebien in November, where he will also appear on his own \u201cTaxpayer Rights Party\u201d line.<\/p>\n
Gendebien, a Lisbon dairy farmer, failed to qualify for a third-party \u201cLower Costs Now\u201d ballot line after the New York State Board of Elections rejected more than 560 petition signatures Thursday.<\/p>\n
Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, who has represented the 21st District since 2015, is not seeking re-election. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York State Assemblyman Robert Smullen has ended his bid for Congress. The Republican lost in a primary…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10,49,51,50],"class_list":["post-285938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285938","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=285938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}