ROME, N.Y. — Vice President JD Vance spent the last morning of the midterm campaign in an airport hangar in Rome, New York, on Monday, urging voters to save a House seat that Republicans have held safely for more than a decade but now fear they could lose.
The seat is New York’s 21st Congressional District, an open seat in the state’s North Country. President Donald Trump won the district by 21 percentage points in 2024. But polls show Republican Anthony Constantino, the founder of the Sticker Mule printing company, in a close race with Democrat Blake Gendebien, a dairy farmer from Lisbon.
Vance told the crowd he had picked the spot on purpose. “This is of course my final day on the midterm campaign trail, and I was trying to think where is the best location to kick off this final day,” he said, according to USA Today. He said he wanted beautiful scenery and “red-blooded, patriotic Americans,” and added: “And it hit me, ladies and gentlemen, to get all of those things, all roads lead to Rome, New York.”
The vice president said he had come to “celebrate and honor” Constantino and praised him for paying for his own campaign. “The other thing that I like about Anthony is that he is funding his campaign out of his own pocket,” Vance said. “He has fought for American workers, let’s fight for Anthony tomorrow at the ballot box.”
Vance also talked about the administration’s push to end taxes on tips and overtime, said it had worked to lower costs for farmers, and said it had stopped illegal migration and drug trafficking across the northern and southern borders. The Wall Street Journal reported that he attacked New York’s Democratic leaders, Senator Chuck Schumer and Governor Kathy Hochul, and warned that “crazy” would come to the district if Democrats won it.
Donald Trump Jr. and Energy Secretary Chris Wright spoke before Vance. Trump Jr. called it “borderline crazy” that Constantino keeps his business in New York under the state’s Democratic leaders, and asked the crowd: “Why would you sit out in the election instead of going and voting straight-ticket Republican?”
Constantino, who has put nearly $17 million of his own money into the race, told supporters the party had to repay the visit with turnout. “The Vice President is coming here and we need to pay him back by getting out the vote big and setting records like people have never seen before,” he said, according to WNYT. He promised, if elected, to create jobs, keep the border secure, fight to cut taxes and restore Second Amendment rights in New York State. The rally also backed Kailee Buller, the Republican candidate in the neighboring 22nd District.
The seat is open because Representative Elise Stefanik, who held it for six terms, left to run for governor. Constantino won the June Republican primary against Assemblyman Robert Smullen by nearly 20 points, with Trump’s support. Trump repeated his endorsement in an Oct. 29 video, saying Constantino has his “complete and total confidence.”
The race tightened anyway. A Siena Research Institute poll released Oct. 9, of 496 likely voters in the district, put Gendebien ahead, 46 percent to 42 percent, with 5 percent for write-in candidate Christopher Schmidt and 8 percent undecided. Schmidt’s name is not on the ballot, and the Constantino campaign says the poll is wrong and undercounts Republican support. A mid-October Public Policy Polling survey, taken for a group linked to House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, put Constantino 2 points ahead. Forecasters at Decision Desk HQ still favor Constantino, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee moved Gendebien onto its top-tier candidate list in early October.
Gendebien answered the rally the same day. “While Vance is here, I hope someone tells him what diesel costs in Rome and what the trade war with Canada has done to a dairy farmer’s milk check,” he said in a statement. “North Country voters have been showing up in record numbers all week. They know who will show up for them, and tomorrow they’re going to show up for us.”
His campaign manager, Michael Waller, was sharper. “Anthony Constantino didn’t know Rome was the biggest city in the district he’s running to represent, so the White House is flying the Vice President in to show him where it is,” Waller said. “You don’t send the Vice President to a plus-24 seat the day before the election unless you know you’re losing it.”
Gendebien is running as a moderate. He promises to bring back the expired Obamacare health subsidies, push for more Border Patrol agents, work to lower the cost of fuel, fertilizer and groceries, and assert Congress’s authority over the war in Iran.
Vance flew on to Ohio for an afternoon rally after the Rome stop. Voters in the district decide the race on Tuesday.
