Gendebien runs on cost-of-living concerns
Anthony Constantino has seen his lead narrow in the contest for Rep. Elise Stefanik’s seat in New York’s 21st congressional district, with one October survey placing the Sticker Mule founder four points behind Democratic challenger Blake Gendebien, a dairy farmer from Lisbon, New York. The Guardian reports that his lead has fallen to single digits. Constantino clinched the Republican primary on June 23, 2026.
The 21st district has been represented by a Republican in the U.S. House since 2015, and Trump carried it by 21 points in 2024. But the Cook Partisan Voting Index shifted the race from “solid Republican” to “likely Republican” in September, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee added the district to its Red to Blue program in early October.
Constantino, 43, is the founder of Sticker Mule, a custom-sticker company headquartered in Amsterdam, New York. The company claims to employ about 1,200 people globally, with production in Amsterdam, New York; Pisa, Italy; and Gaffney, South Carolina. He has drawn on his Sticker Mule experience in pitching his candidacy. “I’m running for Congress. I built a company with over 1,000 people. Not an easy thing to do,” he said. “I went pro in boxing at the age of 40. Not an easy thing to do.”
Constantino has cited a claimed endorsement from former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson. “Mike Tyson decided to endorse me,” he said in an interview, claiming Tyson has endorsed only four candidates. “It’s not easy to get endorsed by Mike Tyson.” He has also pointed to Olympic wrestler Henry Cejudo as a friend. “It’s not easy to become Mike Tyson,” Constantino added. “It’s not easy to become [wrestler] Henry Cejudo, a friend of mine.”
In December 2025, Constantino released “Thank You President Trump,” a 20-track album he said took two weeks to complete, according to a press release. He defended the format as a deliberate outreach choice. “I just realize it’s good to be different, first of all,” he said. “Secondly, some people like listening to speeches. Other people like listening to music. Not everybody in this country wants to listen to political speeches.”
Individual tracks cover Trump’s family, his recovery after being shot, and his golf game, Constantino said. In one, Family Man, “I talked about the fact that President Trump built a great family,” he said. In Fight, “I talked about President Trump standing up after he got shot,” he added. In War, “I talked about how horrible war is, and how we want to stay away from war to how we want peace,” Constantino said. In Hole in One, he talks up Trump’s golf game: “He shot multiple holes in one. That’s not an easy thing to do. And I’m a person that believes if you can do one difficult thing, you can do another difficult thing.” He has also publicly called for an extension of Mount Rushmore to add the president’s face.
One track, titled Trump, claims that people across the world adore the president. “You know North Koreans, they love Donald Donald Trump / South Koreans, too, they love Donald Donald Trump,” Constantino raps. “I forgot Japan / They love Donald Donald Trump.” The song also sets out Constantino’s own political ambition. “Man, I gotta say, I love Donald Donald Trump,” he raps. “Might be president one day, just like Donald Donald Trump.” He said in an interview: “As somebody that ran a global company, I travel a lot. I speak multiple languages. I know people all over the world, and I wanted people to understand that President Trump is actually liked all over the world. I just tried to educate people about that fact just to reduce the hatred. I think we should argue over ideas and not hate. We should try to stay away from having such strong animosity towards each other.”
Constantino has also used his music to attack other politicians. In September 2025, he published a music video on WorldStarHipHop criticizing New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, rapping in part: “First off, fuck you, bitch. I see through your game. You ain’t from here. You’re from Uganda, where your friends kill gays.” Constantino has called Mamdani a “wannabe terrorist” and in 2025 offered to pay 10 people $500 each to tell the mayor that Constantino “says his terrorist-loving Daddy is a coward who hides behind his weak little boy.” His public statements have also upset fellow Republicans, triggering several acrimonious legal battles, the Guardian reports.
Gendebien has not been spared. Constantino has accused his opponent of illegally dumping tires, deceased cattle, and debris at a site in the district they are contesting. Gendebien’s campaign says the alleged dumping did not take place on his property.
Sticker Mule’s domestic employment has shrunk during the period Constantino has campaigned as a champion of job creation. Company filings cited by the Guardian show the firm employed 446 full-time workers at its two Amsterdam facilities as of September 2025, down from 610 in November 2024. Sticker Mule laid off 68 employees from its Amsterdam facility in April 2025, citing automation at its Italian production site. “The best way to keep manufacturing in the USA is to automate, automate, automate to do more with fewer people and offer higher wages,” the company said in a statement defending the layoffs.
Asked about the layoffs, Constantino cited an economic impact report commissioned by the company that claimed $2.7 billion in economic impact and 9,500 jobs supported in New York from 2016 to 2025. “After I endorsed President Trump, I endured a massive boycott, and my sales declined,” he said. “We’re hiring again, and wages are going up because of automation.”
Constantino has largely self-funded his congressional campaign with $16 million. “We want successful people in general getting involved in politics because who became successful in business or in sports or in whatever, it shows that you’re pretty sharp and you’re a good thinker and you can get things done,” he said.
Gendebien has built his campaign around cost-of-living concerns he says he hears from voters across the rural district. “For the past nearly 22 months, we’ve been crisscrossing the district, and lowering costs is the number one issue,” he said. “Inflation is outpacing our veterans and our seniors in New York’s 21st district. It’s time that we had a congressperson from rural America who really understands what it’s like, because as a farmer, I can’t ignore the prices of diesel fuel, gasoline, fertilizer and food. We go through it as well.”
The 21st congressional district has one of the largest veteran populations in New York and the largest senior population in the state, the Guardian reports. Fort Drum, a U.S. Army installation with more than 17,000 military and civilian employees, is the largest single-site employer in the district. The district’s median household income is about $70,000 annually, below the national average.
Gendebien has faulted both Constantino’s labor positions and Trump’s foreign policy. He criticized Trump’s war with Iran — launched in February and unresolved in subsequent months amid polling indicating its widespread unpopularity — for its effect on gas prices and for the lack of congressional approval for the president’s military actions. Gendebien also pointed to roughly one in three union households in the district. “One in three households in this district are union households,” he said, claiming Constantino had backed campaigns that would “destroy unions.” Constantino told the Watertown Daily Times in January 2026: “I am not a fan of unionization. I want to support our law enforcement 100%, but as a CEO, unions are a barrier between management and the workers.”
Gendebien has framed Constantino’s spending and background as out of step with the district. “These aren’t reflections of how we live in the North Country, and he’s on a $16m vacation through the district because he’s trying to buy himself the seat. That’s not how we live up here,” Gendebien said. “Nobody knows anybody that can put that kind of money into a congressional seat.” He added: “We’re just trying to make decisions on food or fuel, we’re trying to figure out how to keep our small businesses open, how to keep our school systems viable, how to save our rural healthcare. So he’s not a great fit for the district.”
Constantino was born in Amsterdam, New York, in a neighboring congressional district and now lives in Edinburg, in the 21st. He was previously registered as a Democrat, which he told the Glens Falls Chronicle was solely to support a friend’s mayoral bid in Albany in 2017. His father, who died of cancer when Constantino was six, invented the car litter bag in the 1950s. Constantino attended the Albany Academy, a private school where high school tuition is currently $28,760, and earned enough credits at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to be considered an alumnus, though he did not complete a degree — a circumstance he attributed to financial difficulties at the family company, Noteworthy.
On policy, Constantino has proposed “Operation Overhaul,” a plan to upgrade government software and tackle what he calls “hidden costs,” and has pointed to outmigration from New York as a chief concern. “One thing that I do that requires no legislation, I’m uniquely qualified to do, is just be a champion for creating jobs,” he said. “More than anything, the biggest hidden cost in New York state is the fact that people are leaving.” He has outlined additional priorities: “I also want to do other sensible things – a lot of other sensible things, too – but the big ones [are that] we got to inspire people to come back, fight for funding for the district for things that make sense like rural healthcare, Operation Overhaul to update all of our government systems, keep the border secure because there’s a hidden cost when illegal immigrants cross the border illegally.” New York’s population peaked at more than 20.2 million in April 2020, declined by hundreds of thousands during the COVID-19 pandemic, and remains down more than 200,000 from the 2020 census count, the Guardian reports.