New York Candidate Blake Gendebien Fires Back After JD Vance Calls Him an ‘Asshole’

On Monday, the eve of the midterm election, Vice President JD Vance traveled to Rome, New York for a campaign rally where he called Blake Gendebien, the Democratic nominee running for Congress in the district, an “asshole” and a “lunatic.” Gendebien responded in a phone conversation with TPM hours after Vance’s remarks. 

“It is unbecoming for the office, but he can call me whatever he wants to, because I’m focused on what really matters to families in the North Country,” Gendebien said.

Gendebien went on to accuse Vance and President Donald Trump’s other allies of ignoring the district outside of the election.  

“I find it interesting that after two years of upstate New York and the North Country struggling with high fuel, gasoline, food, fertilizer, and now heating oil costs — we’re losing our hospitals and this tariff fight with Ontario and Quebec is driving prices up even more — they only want to fly into the district, throw insults, and try to save my opponent’s floundering campaign,” Gendebien said, referring to Republican candidate Anthony Constantino, a bombastic entrepreneur and staunch Trump loyalist. 

“They’re not here to listen to people about how the policies are disproportionately hurting us in rural America,” he added.

Gendebien is a dairy farmer running as an unabashed moderate. Polls show his unconventional campaign has been wooing Republican voters in the district, which has long been a GOP stronghold. A recent survey also indicated Gendebien has pulled ahead of his rival, Constantino.

In the conversation with TPM, Gendebien homed in on an incident where reporter Jake Lahut said Constantino told him to “ask Grok” when Lahut asked the Republican candidate to name the district’s largest city. That city is Rome, where Vance rallied on Monday.

“What’s hilarious is that they traveled all this way to show Anthony Constantino what is the largest city in the district because, as of a couple weeks ago, he was gonna ask Grok to find out — and he’s rarely here,” Gendebien said.

According to Gendebien, Constantino is planning to have his election night event on Tuesday at the headquarters of his online sticker business, which is located in Amsterdam. 

“Even his watch party is going to be outside of the district,” Gendebien said. 

Gendebien also noted this would put the event “right underneath” a massive “VOTE FOR TRUMP” sign that Constantino erected at the building. Constantino’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Along with the sign and the online sticker business that made him a wealthy man, Constantino has made a name for himself with a rap album that included verses cheering Trump and bashing Democrats. When asked if he’d listened to Constantino’s music, Gendebien responded that it is out of step with the district they are both running to represent. 

“I think a profanity-laced rap album is not part of the North Country’s culture,” he explained. 

As for his own musical tastes, Gendebien told TPM he prefers Guns N’ Roses and AC/DC, 

“I like ’80s rock,” he said. 

During his speech, Vance launched into his insults of Gendebien while accusing the Democrat of being controlled by his party’s leadership, specifically House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul. However, Gendebien has actually notably criticized his fellow Democrats. For a time, he even demurred when asked whether he would be voting for Hochul in tomorrow’s election. 

Gendebien told TPM he will indeed vote for the governor. But he also rejected the attempts from Vance to paint him as a radical progressive or even a typical party-line backer. 

“I’m a pragmatic reflection of the North Country. I’m an old school, conservative, free market Democrat. I’m a dairy farmer and my wife is from Cuba. She didn’t leave Cuba — escape Cuba — in order to marry a communist. I’m pretty sure of that. And I don’t know too many far-left radical dairy farmers,” Gendebien said. 

Based on what he’s seen so far, Gendebien predicted he will win a “clear victory.”

“The early voting numbers are very good. They’re above the 2022 midterms and they’re approaching the 2024 presidential year,” said Gendebien. “There’s a tremendous amount of buzz.”

And, while he had harsh words for Vance and is clearly staking out his own lane among the Democrats, Gendebien indicated he’s willing to team up with anyone who shares his priorities if he makes it to Washington. 

“I’m an independent voice. I’m running my own campaign,” he said. “But I’ll work with anybody that wants to help me lower the cost of heating oil, save our hospitals that are failing right before our eyes, and end this bad tariff war with Ontario and Quebec.”