Northern New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik will soon be confirmed as United Nations Ambassador. When that occurs, she will resign her House seat and Governor Kathy Hochul will call a special election in the 21st district. Because it is a special election, the party chairs from the district’s 15 counties pick the candidates. On February 4th, the Democratic chairs in the district announced their choice: Blake Gendebien . He’s a Lisbon farmer and founder of a pediatric cancer foundation. Speaking with WAMC North Country Bureau Chief Pat Bradley, Gendebien explains his background and why he is running for Congress:
I'm a husband of 22 years, a father of three amazing boys. I'm a dairy farmer, a small business owner. And I was born and raised here in Lisbon, New York, and graduated from Lisbon Central School. Carmen and I met in Atlanta and we moved back home to buy the neighboring farm to my parents in 2002. We also co-founded the Jewels of Life Foundation which supports families from Syracuse to Plattsburgh that have children suffering from pediatric cancer. I was the vice chairman of Agrimark, which is a cooperative that represents dairy farmers all through New York and New England and up into Maine. I was a school board member at Lisbon Central School and I coached JV basketball at Lisbon Central School for five years. Combining all of these experiences, I have discovered the absolutely amazing and wonderful things that we all know about the North Country. But I also learned its struggles well. I know what it's like to make payroll as a small business owner while dealing with continuing rising costs and senseless regulations. I know what it's like to plant crops while battling changes in weather patterns. I know what it's like to drive two hours to take your child or your aging parent or aunt or uncle to the nearest specialist. I know what it's like to run a farm on the border with a broken immigration system. And so it's these experiences that have made me want to run for Congress. It is time we sent a farmer to Congress who understands what our friends and neighbors and military veterans are living with every single day.
Blake, this district is known to be Republican leaning. Only one Democrat has represented the area in basically 200 years. Why do you think you can win this district?
Like I said before, Pat, because I am born and raised here I care about everyone. I care about voters on each side. It is not important to me. We share 95% of things in common and we are all so tired of what DC and Albany politicians do to divide us. It is time we put the North Country first and we focus on things like affordability. We focus on things like securing the border, deporting criminals and creating a legal, secure workforce for our farmers and our small businesses and it's time that we worked on reducing senseless regulations that hamstring our small businesses throughout the North Country, Mohawk Valley and Hudson Valley and the Adirondacks. We have so many incredible small businesses in this district that we need to support. And there are many things we can do and I cannot wait to get started.
Blake Gendebien, obviously in a special election the county chairs decide who the candidate is going to be. What promises did you make to the Democratic county chairs to earn their backing?
Well, first I want to tell you that the county chairs did an incredible job. They did an amazing job. It was a very honest, up front, transparent system and they didn't expect to have this. All 15 of them took it seriously, put a lot of time into it and to their credit they worked very, very hard. I'm so grateful that they selected my campaign. A real campaign is going to take resources and I promised to them that I would have the resources to run a real campaign. They saw how much I cared about the district. They wanted someone who was going to stay here. As I said before, I'm a dairy farmer in Lisbon, New York. I cannot take my cows and move them to New York City after this race. I cannot take 1200 acres and move it to New York City after this race. I am here for the long haul and that was very important to them. I am here to support their individual counties and their individual efforts and I explained to them that I am here to make the North Country first, to put the North Country first, and to make everyone's lives easier. It's very important that we work together. We cross party lines and we make life for North Country residents, not just so that they can get by, but so that everyone can thrive. And it's, we all agreed it's time to send a farmer to Congress to do that.
Blake, Democrats in the state legislature had proposed delaying the special election. That's been put off at this point now. Did you support that move?
That, I did not support that move. That was DC and Albany playing games. And what districts and what, sorry, what residents in the North Country need are a break from the games. Like I said before, we need to focus on our issues today: affordability, securing the border and immigration reform, health care and reducing senseless regulations. That's what we want.
Blake Gendebien, as soon as the Democratic county chairs announced that you were their nominee, Republicans have begun criticizing you and your campaign. They criticized a 2013 interview in which you criticize North Country workforce, saying that Hispanic workers are better and smarter than local youth and also said that corrections officers don't have much self-worth. The video that that was on was taken down at your request and then you asked it to be restored after the Republicans came out with their criticism. Why should voters trust you after that was occurring?
So what it shows to me is that Albany and DC politicians, they just take statements out of context, out of context, and they launched deceiving attacks in an effort to fool voters. Every time they criticize me for that interview, it shows how little they know about the North Country and it shows that I am from the North Country and I understand what people are going through. My comments are readily available online. Like I said before, I'll make the recording available again in DC, so DC and Albany party bosses can continue living in the past. While they're dwelling on decades old comments that I made as a farmer, and nearly 15 years ago, I'm focused on delivering a better future for the North Country, fixing our broken immigration system and lowering prices for hard working families.
Was it a mistake for you to pull that video and then put it back on?
It's just like I said before, I'm really tired of Albany and DC, dwelling on the past, trying to play gotcha with people that are laying it on the line for North Country residents and trying to make life better for people here in the North Country.
Obviously, the Republican county chairs have not yet chosen a nominee to run in the special election. There's quite a few of them that have announced that they are running. Which of the Republican would-be candidates do you fear facing the most?
I don't fear facing anyone at all. I'm not a victim of any circumstance. When you're a farmer in the North Country, nothing scares you. When you're a construction worker in the North Country, nothing scares you. When you're working on power poles in the North Country, nothing scares you. When you're cutting down trees in the Adirondacks, nothing scares you. When you're driving through snow to work, nothing scares you and nothing scares me. I am going to outwork any candidate. There are two types of people. There's show horses and there's work horses. I am a workhorse. I'm going to hook up to the plow and I'm going to go one pass at a time until the job is done regardless of who I'm running against. What the North Country wants is someone who is born and raised here, understands exactly the challenges that they have in their dining room, at their dinner table and it's time we sent a farmer to Congress to take care of the needs and wants of the North Country.
Mr. Gendebien, if you were to be elected and become the New York 21st district representative, would you vote for Hakeem Jeffries for House leader?
I am here to be a voice of freedom and fairness for the North Country. I'm going to do what's best for the North Country and for what our residents want. I will never be a tool to be used by Washington or Albany. I am, this is a, the House of Representatives is, should be a body that has a pulse on the needs of their, of the people that they represent. And that is exactly what I will be. I will do exactly what our, the North Country needs.
Along those lines, if you're elected, what issues would be your priorities in Congress?
Okay. Affordability is number one. We need to make sure that everybody can afford the basic needs to run their households. For example, nearly 50% of this district is over 65. Veterans, retired teachers, retired state workers on fixed incomes. They cannot afford rising costs. And as a farmer, I understand what it takes to bring costs down at the dinner table. Number two, we have to secure our border and focus on immigration reform and we do have to remove criminals that are here illegally. One way to make food really expensive is to make sure that farmers do not have a secure, legal workforce. You have to have a farmer in the room when creating immigration policy. That is why I want to go to DC to be the farmer in the room. And lastly, we need to focus on common sense regulations. Currently, there are too many regulations on small businesses. As a dairy farmer, I am regulated by 13 different agencies. I have to record daily rainfall, daily snowfall. I make safe food. Regulations like that do nothing to make food safer. All they do is make food more expensive. So we have to take a deep dive into regulations that are just hamstringing our incredible entrepreneurs in the North Country. One last thing that I want to focus on is access to health care and access to health care that people can actually afford. My uncle Rodney had a stroke in June and his 80-year-old spouse had to drive him to Syracuse, two and a half hours, for appointments. That is unacceptable. We can do better than that.
Republicans have not yet announced a nominee for the Congressional race. New York GOP Chair Ed Cox issued a statement criticizing the selection of Gendebien and claimed “Republicans will easily hold this seat in the upcoming special election, because the North Country is unquestionably Trump Country.”
