New York Republicans suffered historic losses in last week’s midterms, and two of the party’s most prominent figures have decided to spend the aftermath insulting each other online.
Why are Constantino and Blakeman feuding?
Congressman-elect Anthony Constantino (R-North Country) fired first.
At about 3:30 a.m. Wednesday, following his narrow win in New York’s 21st Congressional District, he took to X to say Republican gubernatorial nominee Bruce Blakeman “wandered around like a headless chicken going from stupid dinner to stupid dinner.”
In the same posts, he called the district’s GOP county chairs “objectively a group of scammers” and demanded the firing of state party chair Ed Cox.
Constantino beat Democratic dairy farmer Blake Gendebien by roughly 5,100 votes, or less than 2 percentage points, with 97% of the vote counted, according to the Associated Press. Republicans have carried the district comfortably for more than a decade. Gendebien conceded on Friday.
Blakeman, fresh off his own loss to Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), waited about a day and a half to respond.
“Anthony Constantino was by far the worst candidate I ever encountered. I ran way ahead of him in his District and if it weren’t for me he wouldn’t have won. See you in two years, pal,” Blakeman wrote in a reply on X.
Constantino remained unrepentant.
“I’m what the Republican Party needs. I won on my first try on an off year without the backing of the corrupt Establishment that Bruce Blakeman worshipped,” Constantino said in a statement emailed to Courier New York by his campaign.
Constantino’s jab about winning on his first try lands pointedly.
Blakeman lost his 1998 bid for state comptroller to Carl McCall by more than 30 points, lost his own Nassau County Legislature seat the following year, and finished third in the 2010 Republican primary for US Senate with about 20% of the vote. Four years later, he lost a House race to Kathleen Rice.
Last week, he fell to Hochul by roughly 20 points, according to preliminary results. Blakeman has fared better closer to home, winning the Nassau County executive’s office in 2021 and again in 2025.
Did Blakeman carry Constantino?
The returns lend Blakeman’s boast some credence.
A Watertown Daily Times analysis found Blakeman drew at least 27,000 more votes in the district than Constantino. North Country Public Radio reported that Blakeman carried every county in NY-21 except Saratoga, while Constantino lost several.
Blakeman’s office did not respond to Courier New York’s request for comment.
How did Constantino’s election night go?
The overnight posts capped an election night that had already turned combative.
Constantino declared victory from his company’s Amsterdam factory and blamed the press for the slim margin.
“It should have been a 20- or 30-point victory,” he said, adding that coverage of his campaign forced him to spend $17 million of his own money, adding that coverage of his campaign forced him to spend $17 million of his own money. He also told Gendebien’s supporters they had made “a big mistake,” according to the Daily Gazette. He called City & State reporter Kate Lisa an “a–hole” from the stage, as Lisa recounted in a thread, and had a WWNY news crew removed from the event.
The speech has also reached a national audience. On Thursday, The Daily Show host Jordan Klepper aired clips of Constantino cursing out reporters before declaring, “I want to be clear with you, I’m not a politician.”
Klepper replied, “We can tell from the number of times you called people a-holes in your victory speech.”
