Vice President JD Vance brought his final day on the midterm campaign trail to Rome, New York, on Monday morning, rallying a crowd of hundreds inside the SkyDome hangar at Griffiss International Airport for Anthony Constantino, the Republican running for the open 21st Congressional District seat — and telling voters that electing him is the district's answer to the Democratic leadership in Washington. Donald Trump Jr., whose visit was not announced until that morning, introduced the Vice President, Energy Secretary Chris Wright also spoke, and the crowd watched through the hangar's open doors as Air Force Two landed and taxied into view before Vance took the podium in front of banners reading "Restoring Common Sense."
Vance pitched Constantino — the Sticker Mule chief executive, endorsed by President Trump in a video released in recent days — as a patriot aligned with the President's priorities, and framed Tuesday's vote as a message to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi: that in New York's 21st District, "we are fighting for people who love the United States of America, not those who hate it." "Tomorrow, the workers and the people of this district are gonna send a message," he said, predicting the district would elect Constantino to Congress.
The seat has been held since 2015 by Representative Elise Stefanik, who carried it by 24 points in 2024 and is not running again. Constantino won the June 23 Republican primary over Assemblyman Robert Smullen by nearly 20 points, and on Tuesday he faces Democrat Blake Gendebien, a dairy farmer from Lisbon. The race has tightened enough to draw the Vice President on the final day: the Cook Political Report moved the district from "likely" to "lean Republican" last month, and an October Siena Research Institute poll of 496 likely voters put Gendebien ahead, 46% to 42%, inside the poll's margin of error.
Gendebien's campaign answered that the visit is itself the tell: a party does not fly the Vice President into a district it won by 24 points the day before the election, his campaign said, "unless you know you're losing it."
For North Country households, this seat is one of the votes that will decide which party controls the U.S. House — and with it the tax, energy and jobs legislation that reaches every family's bills. Speaker after speaker at the rally pitched exactly that: lower taxes, lower energy bills and more jobs upstate, and urged the crowd not only to vote but to bring like-minded neighbours with them. Vance also campaigned at the same stop for Kailee Buller, the Republican in the neighbouring 22nd District race, before heading on to Ohio. Polls in New York are open Tuesday from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
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