A couple of nights ago, I attended a Zoom meet-and-greet with Blake Gendebien, the Democratic candidate to replace Trump toady Elise Stefanik in New York Congressional District 21 when she vacates it to be vetted by the Senate for her appointment as UN Ambassador. As you might expect, the voters in the mostly rural, 86% white NY21 in the far northeastern part of the state, are as far politically from the voters in New York City, where I live, as New York City is geographically from NY21. The district voted solidly for Trump in all three of his presidential campaigns.

The GOP believes it now owns the district, though Stefanik, who was first elected in 2014, was the first Republican to represent it since Hamilton Fish IV was redistricted out in 1992. A long-term holder of the seat before he, too, was redistricted out was the “staunch progressive” Paul Tonko, who now represents NY20.

To get an idea of how radically NYS and US politics have changed in recent times, before migrating north up the Hudson River, NY21 represented New York County, otherwise known as Manhattan. Back then (in the 1960s and 1970s), it was represented by actual liberal Republican (and Liberal Party member) Jacob Javits, who early in his Congressional career, as an example of his political inclinations, opposed Taft-Hartley because it threatened the strength of labor unions.

Who is Blake Gendebien?

Blake Gendebien (pronounced JEN-da-bean) is what is now known as a “moderate” Democrat. (Republican operatives call him “far left.” More about that in a moment.) He’s a dairy farmer and small businessman who with his wife Carmen, a Cuban immigrant he met while studying agriculture and business at Penn State, owns 500 cows and 1,500 acres near the St Laurence River. Like Kamala Harris’s running mate Tim Walz, Gendebien is a dad and a former coach. He says he wants to “strengthen the border” and get rid of regulations that hamper small businesses like his own.  He owns a gun, says he supports the Second Amendment and subscribes to Gun Sense Voter principals. It seems, so far, that only the Gun Sense part could possibly be controversial in his district.

Gendebien says in campaign emails that he’s “laser-focused on the issues that actually matter to folks and ready to represent this district better than anyone else ever has.” His emails, sent out by Fight for Progress PAC, which also raises funds for candidates in two purple districts in New York, are vague about what those issues are. But in the meet-and-greet, it’s clear that one key issue for him is the worsening lack of health care access in the North Country counties of NY21, where a cancer or other serious diagnosis can often involve planning for sizable transportation and accommodation costs on top of medical bills. Because his property abuts the St Laurence, he’s also personally concerned about climate change and rising sea levels. Close to the heart of a progressive like me, Gendebien was emphatic about his support for marginalized people like immigrants, LGBTQ+ folk and people with disabilities. He says that unlike certain politicians of recent vintage, he actually likes people and dislikes bullies.

Obstacles in the Path

The NYS Democrats, who have a trifecta in state government, have made some political blunders that put hurdles in Gendebien’s path. First, weeks before Gendebien’s candidacy was announced, they let it be known that they were considering changing the rules around the special election for Stefanik’s seat. Ordinarily that election is held 90 days from the date the seat is vacated. Governor Kathy Hochul and her counterparts in the state Senate and Assembly said they planned to pass legislation to delay the election, keeping the seat vacant and depriving the Republicans of one seat in their slender 218-215 majority in the US House of Representatives possibly until November. The GOP jumped on these legitimate partisan machinations like jackals, claiming the Dems were rigging the system. Of course, they then turned around to rig the game their own way, delaying Stefanik’s exit from the House until April, after two special elections in Florida (to replace two other House members Trump poached for his administration) that are likely to go their way.

It may also have been a mistake to rush into naming a candidate before knowing who his opponent might be. Again, the GOP jumped on the opportunity to define Gendebien for voters before the Democrats could. And this is how sharp and organized Republican opposition research is: Within days of Gendebien’s candidacy being announced, Republicans shared choice quotes from a 2013 interview he gave to an oral historian of North Country farming, which was only available on the Library of Congress website, allegedly denigrating local workers and praising migrants from Latin American countries. The website took the interview down when Gendebien asked; it’s still down though Gendebien rescinded his request. It’s available on YouTube, however; the controversial quotes begin at the 21:18 mark. 

“So each guy works about 12 hours a day, 6 ½ days a week, which is their choice,” he says of the migrant workers hired. “So imagine I would have to find, there is 3 Hispanic employees, they would need to be replaced by probably 6 local people, and it’s hard to find one local person that doesn’t have domestic abuse problems, alcohol problems, wage garnishments…. So you have all these plans and these guys have to leave for court all the time because they are in custody battles and child support battles and they want me to lie and tell them that they don’t make this much. It is just awful and they show up late, they drank too much; there is just not a labor force out there.”

“I’m not a politician, I was a tired farmer and I spoke plainly,” he explained to a local reporter earlier this month, adding, “My point is they [migrant workers] bring a lot of value to the North Country.”

Critical Moment

If you’re in NY21, it’s important to read the whole article to sense the context for Gendebien’s, perhaps, impolitic remarks when he was not a politician. Also, to get a sense of his righteous frustration with political chicanery designed to eliminate him before voters even get to know who he is. And what for? To drop in place a politician who will join Republicans in smoothing the way for what many people of many political persuasions see as a fascist power grab.

One thing that has stayed with me from the meet-and-greet was Gendebien’s observation about what motivated him to run. He said that he has noticed a tear in the North Country’s social fabric, and it had a very specific beginning. In 2016, he started to hear neighbors who had never had an issue with the migrant workforce in all the years they’d been essential to the local economy suddenly becoming obsessed with “illegals” and complaining about “open borders.” Worse, his half-Cuban sons told him they suddenly heard slurs being thrown at them by classmates. It was a turning point and a sign of worse to come.

I confess that I have little faith in the American electoral system, considering the dismal  choices it has vomited up for us in recent years. Thanks to this system, we are forced to choose between rank and rabid ultra right-wing partisanship in one of just two parties we’re permitted to choose from in most elections, while the other pro-status quo party exhibits bottomless cluelessness over how to deal with its perpetual opponents.

NY21, we’re in an emergency! Some would argue we’ve already been in one and getting deeper into it for at least a decade. But we are now facing the rapid, purposeful destruction of long-standing institutions and political norms by vandals inside and in control of the government. Some may truly believe that these vandals are acting on behalf of God and the constitution. I believe those people are deluded, quite frankly, and are being manipulated by demagogues in power who do not have the whole country’s (let alone the whole world’s) best interests at heart. To me, it looks like Republicans are almost willingly—almost, I say, because I hold out some small hope they can break the spell that’s been put on them—enabling two incompetent, narcissistic oligarchs to steal a once relatively healthy republic away from the rest of us.

So NY21 voters, you have some power in your hands to throw a wrench into the works. Of course, I’m from Manhattan, as I said, perhaps worlds away from you and your concerns. But I and many others outside of your district, across New York State, the country and the whole world are watching to see what you will do. Who do you want to represent you? Do you want an angry, far-right ideologue (the most likely choice to replace far-right ideologue Stefanik, given the direction of the GOP) to rubber stamp the diktats of a fascist/fascist adjacent coup d’état? Or would you rather be represented at this crucial moment in the life of the republic, by a North Country farmer?