Watertown Daily Times, N.Y. (TNS) Alex Gault
Anthony T. Constantino, a businessman from Upstate New York, has begun his campaign for the House seat even though a special election has not yet been officially scheduled for New York’s 21st Congressional District.
A 42-year-old businessman and relatively new political activist, Constantino is the owner of Sticker Mule, a renowned printing, labeling, and manufacturing business situated in Amsterdam, Montgomery County.
Constantino, a huge supporter of President-elect Donald Trump, has also lately made national headlines. He gained notoriety for placing a gigantic Vote for Trump sign on his company’s factory in central Amsterdam.
The 100-foot sign, which is visible from the New York State Thruway and is illuminated day and night, caused a legal dispute between elected officials from Amsterdam and Constantino because they thought it was against city rules. The state courts ruled in favor of Constantino, who has promised to maintain the sign indefinitely.
Despite supporting and contributing to Trump in 2016, Constantino, who describes himself as a local tech CEO, claimed he wasn’t really active in politics before to Trump’s ascent to power.
In an interview at his factory, he claimed, “I was among the first people to be canceled.” I donated $500 to him when he was running for president, and I was canceled as a result.
Constantino claimed that someone resorted to social media to criticize him after learning that he had made the donation, which is public knowledge.
Sticker Mule was a well-known brand in the branding and merchandising industry at the time. The business was a pioneer in the production of stickers, T-shirts, and labels. Sticker Mule goods are used by many politically active organizations, including several federal office campaigns, and some individuals criticized Constantino for endorsing a politician who at the time appeared unlikely to win.
He did, but Constantino remained largely silent despite continuing to back Trump during both his first and second terms in office. Although he has since registered as a Republican, he even enrolled as a Democrat to support a friend in a primary contest for Albany city mayor.
After the first attempt on the president-elect’s life, Constantino returned to national politics in July when he appeared at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. At that time, he posted the sign on his Amsterdam factory and wrote a letter endorsing Trump to the Sticker Mule client list. This action sparked further criticism from some customers who believed that their information was being used inappropriately.
According to Constantino, the stakes of the political disputes in the United States had reached a fever pitch at that time, therefore he believed it was critical to speak up.
“I want to do something as a citizen to try to fix this situation because it’s gotten to the point where bullets are flying,” he said. I decided that just saying that I support him was the best course of action.
By representing Northern New York in Congress, Constantino is now hoping to increase his influence even further. He shares an early history with longstanding Representative Elise M. Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, who is expected to be appointed U.N. ambassador to the Trump White House next year.
At a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, October 27, 2024, in New York, Republican presidential contender and former President Donald Trump is addressed by Representative Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y. (Photo by Evan Vucci/AP)AP
Constantino attended the Albany Academy for Boys, which is the sibling institution of the congresswoman’s alma mater, the Albany Academy for Girls, and is two years older than Stefanik. He claimed to have kept in contact with the congresswoman and to have recently spoken with her about his campaign. A request for comment on that conversation was not answered by Stefanik’s representative.
Constantino claimed he began receiving calls from several people in his network asking him to run for the seat once it was announced that Stefanik would be leaving her post.
There is no primary competition in a special election, therefore it is by no means a regular campaign. Rather, the party chairs in each county choose a candidate for both Republicans and Democrats, and their votes are tallied according to the percentage of the party’s total registered voters in the district.
Starting with his home county and working his way north and west over the next few weeks, Constantino said he is beginning his campaign by addressing each of the 15 Republican committee heads.
In that process, he faces some competition. State Senators Daniel G. Stec, R-Queensbury, Jacob Ashby, R-Rensselaer, Assemblymen Chris L. Tague, R-Catskill, and Robert J. Smullen, R-Herkimer, Rensselaer County Executive Steven F. McLaughlin, outgoing Representative Marcus J. Molinaro, R-Tivoli, and a few local business leaders are also thinking about running, according to people familiar with the talks.
According to him, if he receives the party’s endorsement and support in the special election, he will use his experience in technology and marketing to campaign for Congress in an area that has routinely reelected its incumbent congressman by increasing margins for the past ten years.
He declared, “I’m going to do things that people have never seen before.”
He promised to put $2.6 million of his personal funds in his campaign when Elon Musk purchased X, previously Twitter, and investors expressed doubts about the company’s viability.
Constantino compares himself to well-known tech CEOs like Musk, Samuel H. Altman of OpenAI, or Shark Tank star Mark Cuban. Like those men have gotten involved in politics, on one side or the other, Constantino said he has done the same.
He said he believes he is one of the reasons New York swung so far to the right in this year s election Trump did more than 11 percentage points better among New York voters than he did in 2020, the biggest shift of any one state.
I think you could say, objectively, I m the strongest voice for President Trump in New York state, I think probably across the entire state.
He said he believes the sign on his factory is one of the most effective in American history, because it was discussed in the news and generated controversy and attention in a Democratic-leaning region.
Constantino also took on other political projects he s held debate sessions discussing Trump s policies with anyone who wants to, and held one such session in Manhattan, where he said he changed many minds on Trump.
He s also founded a group called Trump for Peace, taking the position that Trump is the candidate who will end the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and protect global peace going forward, and he founded a group called StickerPAC, which focused on creating and distributing pro-Trump memorabilia during the campaign.
Trump is a big part of Constantino s platform. He said he ll go with the president-elect on anything he puts forward as president.
Broadly, he said the key to improving things for NY-21 is to end the long-running outmigration in New York, and get the state back on track to gaining population in proportion to the rest of the country.
I m the strongest voice for championing the fact that people need to come back to New York state, he said.
On Trump s plan to enforce tariffs on goods shipped into the United States from abroad, Constantino said he would be supportive. As a business owner, he said he isn t worried about tariffs. He didn t know how many of his company s products would be impacted by a tariff, but said as a business owner he is happy to work within the lines set by government, as long as those lines are equally enforced on everyone.
I m fine with whatever regulatory structure the president thinks makes the most sense, he said.
On agricultural policy, Constantino didn t have an answer. Congress is set to pass another yearlong extension of the Farm Bill, which sets agricultural policy for the country as well as food benefits programs. It s already a year overdue, and with Republican control in Washington next year now assured, that party s priorities are likely to guide the next five-year Farm Bill.
Constantino said that if he was elected he would hire advisers to help him navigate agricultural policy.
I m gonna learn from very talented advisors and also from talking to farmers what makes the most sense, he said. I ll advocate for what makes the most sense, but I don t have a specific answer on that.
Congress is also set to decide on the next steps for tax policy. The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act expires in 2025 and with Republican control, it s likely to be reauthorized with some changes. One expected change is the removal of the State and Local Tax deduction cap, which allows taxpayers to deduct what they pay in sales, property and other local and state taxes from their federal taxable income. A cap of $10,000 was put on SALT deductions in 2017, but Trump has said he would like to remove it next year.
Taxes being too high, we gotta get costs under control to fix that, Constantino said. But in terms of specific mechanisms we (use to) get taxes down, I m gonna need to spin up my team and really study the issues to make a correct judgment.
On the border, Constantino supports a broad lockdown on border crossings, an end to the catch-and-release policy that allows people awaiting asylum to remain in the U.S. For immigration, he believes the U.S. needs to be incredibly selective on who it allows to become a resident or citizen as well.
I think the United States of America is sort of a giant corporation, he said. It should operate in the same way. If you run a company, I want the best people coming in for my business. We want the best possible people coming into our country.
Constantino said he would support the construction of a missile defense site on Fort Drum, a project that Stefanik has been pushing for years with limited success. The plan calls for a multi-million dollar installation for a missile system that could shoot down incoming ICBMs from hostile nations in the east.
For years, the annual defense funding bill has required the Department of Defense move forward with an installation on Fort Drum, but DoD has repeatedly said they don t see a need to build a site on the east coast, and defense technology and policy experts have said that missile defense systems are spotty at best, and an east coast installation would be ultimately unnecessary.
Elise was championing the missile defense site at Fort Drum, Constantino said. I m going to be following through on that, making sure it gets done.
When asked about the technological and operational concerns over the installation, Constantino said he would push for the project to be as effective as possible.
I m a perfectionist, he said. I think the idea of a missile defense system makes a lot of sense, but we want everything done the best possible way.
While Constantino sets up his campaign, he ll be talking with the rest of the NY-21 Republican committee chairs. The chairs can t make a formal announcement of who they re nominating until Stefanik formally vacates her seat, likely to happen sometime in January, which will start a roughly 3-month timeline from then to the election for the Republican and Democratic, plus any independent or third-party nominees who qualify, to make their case to voters.
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