On Saturday, June 20, I finally had the opportunity to meet Anthony Constantino and personally endorse him for Congress. To some, that may seem like a simple campaign moment: a handshake, a photograph, a sign held in support of a candidate. To me, it was something more serious. It was the public confirmation of a political position I had already taken months earlier, when the fight for New York’s 21st Congressional District first revealed the deeper corruption of the local party machine.
I did not come to my support for Anthony Constantino casually. I supported him early, before it was convenient, before the race became fully formed, and before many people understood what was really happening. My support began during the special-election crisis that followed Elise Stefanik’s reelection. She had just been returned to Congress by the voters of NY-21 with a commanding margin. The people of the district had spoken. Then, almost immediately afterward, she was nominated by the Trump administration to serve as United States Ambassador to the United Nations.
That nomination created a sudden political vacuum. A seat that had just been filled by the voters was now on the verge of becoming vacant. In a healthy political culture, that moment should have been handled with humility and respect. The voters had just participated in an election. They had just made their choice. Any process to replace their representative should have been open, transparent, and rooted in the consent of the people who actually live in the district.
Instead, what I saw was the opposite.
The local Republican establishment, joined by the Conservative Party structure and encouraged by the political convenience of Democrats who stood to benefit from Republican division, began moving toward a controlled nomination. Rather than trusting the voters with an open primary, the party apparatus began acting as though the seat belonged to them. The district was treated less like a living body of citizens and more like a possession to be managed by chairs, committees, consultants, and insiders. That was the real betrayal.
It was not merely a disagreement over candidates. Parties can prefer one candidate over another. Leaders can make recommendations. But there is a moral difference between persuasion and control. What happened in NY-21 was the instinct of a machine revealing itself. The establishment did not appear interested in allowing the voters to decide. It appeared interested in managing the outcome before the voters ever had the chance. That was the moment Anthony Constantino stood out to me.
I first began supporting Anthony after Roger Stone interviewed him during that special-election fight. What I saw was not a conventional politician repeating consultant-approved language. I saw a businessman, an outsider, and a man willing to challenge the premise of the entire process. He understood that the issue was larger than his own candidacy. It was about whether the people of NY-21 had the right to choose their representative, or whether that choice could be quietly absorbed by the party machine.
A congressional seat is not private property. It does not belong to the county chairs. It does not belong to the Republican Party, the Conservative Party, the consultants, or the political class. It belongs to the people. It belongs to the voters who live in the towns, farms, villages, cities, factories, and forgotten corners of this district. When those voters are bypassed, managed, or treated as a formality, the injury is not procedural. It is moral.
I talked to people wherever I could. I posted on Facebook. I posted on X . I argued that this was not a minor internal dispute, but a warning about the condition of our politics. The fight over NY-21 was exposing something ugly: the contempt that political machines often have for their own voters. They want the energy of the grassroots, the donations of the faithful, the turnout of the loyal, and the silence of the obedient. They want citizens to show up when called, vote the line, and accept whatever decision has already been made for them. I refuse to accept that.
I had been registered with the Conservative Party of New York since 2016, the first year I was eligible to vote. For years, I believed the name meant something. Conservative should mean loyalty to principle over power. It should mean restraint against centralized control. It should mean respect for tradition, responsibility, order, sovereignty, and the moral agency of citizens. It should mean that voters are not livestock to be herded by party bosses.
But during that special-election fight, I did not see conservatism. I saw gatekeeping. I saw a party structure that seemed more concerned with control than representation. I saw an organization that demanded loyalty from voters while refusing to trust those same voters with a real choice. That began my exit strategy from the Conservative Party.
Then the special election collapsed. Within roughly two months, President Trump withdrew Elise Stefanik’s nomination and kept her in Congress, ending the immediate vacancy fight. But the fact that the process stopped did not erase what had already been revealed. The machine had shown its instincts. When pressure arrived, it moved to control the outcome. When voters deserved an open process, insiders tried to narrow the field. When Anthony Constantino gained attention as an outsider, the establishment moved against him. That lesson stayed with me.
Now Anthony Constantino is running again, and once again the same pattern is repeating. The local Republican and Conservative establishments are again aligning against him. They are again searching for a safer, more manageable candidate. They are again signaling that they would rather preserve the machinery of politics than trust the people of NY-21 with a true grassroots fight. That is why my support for Anthony Constantino has only grown stronger.
Anthony represents something the political class deeply resents: independence. He is not a product of the system. He did not spend his life waiting for party officials to bless his ambitions. He built a company. He created jobs. He took risks. He understands manufacturing, business, labor, pressure, and responsibility in a way that most career politicians never will. In a district like ours, that matters.
NY-21 is not a playground for consultants. It is not merely a Republican seat to be protected by whatever name the establishment finds convenient. It is a real place filled with real people. It is the North Country, the Mohawk Valley, small towns, farms, working families, manufacturers, tradesmen, veterans, and citizens who are tired of being remembered only when someone needs their vote.
NY 21 needs someone who understands the border matters. Manufacturing matters. Energy matters. Small businesses matter. Farmers matter. The Second Amendment matters. Free speech matters. And above all, the voters matter. The party is supposed to be an instrument of the people. The people are not supposed to be instruments of the party. That is the heart of this race.
My support for Anthony Constantino is not rooted in blind loyalty to a party. In fact, it is the opposite. I support him because the party machine does not want him. I support him because he represents a challenge to the comfortable arrangements that have governed too much of our politics for too long. I support him because he is willing to stand in open conflict with people who believe they have the right to choose for us.
Congress does not need another empty suit. It does not need another Republican who says the right things during a primary and then disappears into the bloodstream of Washington once elected. It does not need another candidate selected precisely because he will not disturb the system. NY-21 needs a fighter. It needs someone who is not owned by the machine, not produced by the machine, and not afraid of the machine.
When I stood beside Anthony Constantino, I was not simply posing for a photograph. I was standing behind a principle. When I held his sign, I was rejecting the closed-door politics that had already tried to deny this district a real choice. When I shook his hand, I was endorsing more than a candidate. I was endorsing the right of the voters of NY-21 to take back authority from the party structures that have too often presumed to speak for them.
The voters of this district deserve better than a managed succession. They deserve better than insider arrangements. They deserve better than candidates selected for them by people who confuse party control with public service. They deserve a real choice, a real fight, and a representative who understands that public office is a trust, not a possession.
That is why I supported Anthony Constantino early. That is why I made noise when others stayed quiet. That is why I am leaving behind old party loyalties that no longer deserve loyalty. And that is why I proudly support Anthony Constantino for Congress. NY-21 does not belong to the establishment. It does not belong to county chairs, consultants, committees, or political dealmakers. It belongs to the voters.
It is time we reminded them of that.