Latest news with #BlakeGendebien
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Gendebien campaign fund tops $3.5M
Democratic congressional candidate Blake Gendebien continued to demonstrate a solid grass-roots donor base from around the country in the second quarter. But contributions from Democratic-leaning political action committees dried up after the expected 21st Congressional District special election this spring was called off. Gendebien has yet to receive financial backing from the Democratic party establishment, generally regarded as in indication of a competitive race, and he has had limited contributions from labor unions. Still, it is early in the race, and with $1.96 million in his campaign fund, as of June 30, Genedebien is well-positioned to be able to run a high-profile campaign. The farmer from Lisbon in Saint Lawrence County raised $212,605 in the second quarter, bringing his total amount raised so far in the election cycle to $3.56 million, according to a new campaign finance reported filed Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission. Gendebien began fundraising in late 2024 in expectation of running in a special election for a vacancy in the 21st Congressional District, which never materialized. In late March, President Donald Trump withdrew the nomination of U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, to become ambassador to the United Nations, saying he could not risk losing the seat to a Democrat, given the thin Republican majority in the House. Stefanik raised $2.07 million in the second quarter, bringing her total contributions this campaign cycle to $3.2 million, according to a new campaign finance report filed Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission. She had $10 million in her campaign fund as of June 30. However, Stefanik, a six-term incumbent, is expected to run for governor. If she does not, the Republican congressional nominee would be starting fundraising from scratch, and could face an expensive primary. Potential Republican candidates are waiting for Stefanik to formally announce her candidacy to launch their campaigns. Assemblyman Robert Smullen, R-Johnstown, has said he will run for Congress if Stefanik runs for governor, and Amsterdam businessman Anthony Constantino has said he is considering running. Other possible candidates, including state Sen. Dan Stec, R-Queensbury, and Liz Lemery Joy, a conservative speaker and writer from Glenville, have said it is premature to discuss a hypothetical race. Republicans have said they are confident of the party's heavy voter enrollment advantage in the congressional district. Most national House race rating publications do not consider the race as competitive, but one publication, Inside Elections, has identified NY-21 as one of 64 House 'seats in play' in 2026, although it rates the race as 'likely Republican.' Gendebien received one labor union contribution in the second quarter — $1,000 from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers — and no other political action committee contributions. Stefanik received $95,500 in political action committee contributions in the second quarter, including $5,000 from the America Israel Public Affairs Committee, a bipartisan pro-Israel PAC. She received $12,000 from the finance, banking and loan industry: $5,000 each from Price Waterhouse Coopers and UBS America, and $1,000 each from the American Financial Services Association and Nelnet, a student loan payment processing company. She received $4,000 from defense contractors: $1,000 each from R.T.X. Corp., L3 Technologies, Textron and The Boeing Co. Within the region, she received $2,500 from Sylvamo Corp., which owns a paper mill at Ticonderoga, and $2,500 from the National Thoroughbred Racing Association. Other PAC contributions included $5,000 from the Community Action Program, which advocates for human services assistance programs, $2,500 from General Motors Corp., $2,500 from Google, $1,500 from the American Petroleum Institute, $5,000 from The Home Depot and 2,000 from Walmart. Gendebien spent $273,871 on his campaign in the second quarter, including $24,383 for texting, $3,144 for printing, $18,600 for polling and $28,250 for video production. The Gendebien campaign recently released on social media a satirical video produced using artificial intelligence, which lampooned Stefanik for being reluctant to formally announce her run for governor. AI was used to create a character which closely resembles Stefanik, including wearing outfits similar to what Stefanik has worn in public or in past campaign advertising. Stefanik, in a news release, called the video a 'blatantly sexist, deep-fake attack ad that is deeply offensive to North Country voters.' Gendebien countered that it was a light-hearted attempt to call attention to Stefanik not being willing to admit she plans to run for governor. Stefanik spent $579,882 on her campaign in the second quarter, including $97,967 for fundraising telemarketing, $152,839 on direct mail printing and postage, $4,603 on texting and $800 on video production.
Yahoo
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Gendebien mocks Stefanik's gubernatorial aspirations in AI-made video
Jul. 10—Blake Gendebien, a Democrat running for New York's 21st Congressional District, has put out an artificially-generated video lambasting Congresswoman Elise M. Stefanik, his supposed competition for the seat. Gendebien shared a roughly 43 second, completely artificially-generated video on social media Thursday, depicting a figure closely resembling Stefanik. R-Schuylerville, dancing around with a fully artificially generated song in the background. "I'm considering, considering, considering, OK, am I running for Governor, I just won't say," the artificial voice sings to a jazz beat as a figure resembling Stefanik comes into view. Scenes depict a female political figure, who at some points closely resembles Stefanik and at other times looks like another person entirely, shrugging in front of a stately home, smiling amid a gaggle with reporters, dancing on the House floor as an all-male group watches on and photographs her, and pulling a rabbit from a hat in front of a stage curtain. It also depicts her drinking from a water bottle labeled "Lawler's tears," a dig at her potential opponent for the GOP nomination, Hudson Valley Rep. Mike R. Lawler, R-Pearl River. The main point is to highlight Stefanik's continued and very public consideration of a run for Governor. For months, her team has teased that she's thinking about running to be the Republican opponent to Governor Kathleen C. Hochul, or whoever the Democratic candidate is, next year. This comes after Stefanik came within days of a Senate confirmation to be the next U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, a cabinet position in President Donald J. Trump's administration, but ultimately had her nomination pulled. After the President reversed the nomination and opted to keep Stefanik in the House, she returned to House GOP leadership in a less senior role and hasn't regained all of her committee memberships. She's reportedly had a tense relationship with her former underling-turned-boss Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., and now that the Republican budget and policy bill she was kept in the House to pass has become law, she's planning an exit from the chamber. Polls show Stefanik is the favorite among Republicans to run next year — but that she'd have an uphill battle in the general election against Hochul. Stefanik has not yet declared her candidacy for Governor, but members of her team have told the press an announcement is "expected" for some time. Not a single element of the video created by Gendebien mocking Stefanik ever existed in the real world — it was entirely computer generated, using new technologies built off of large language models, generative predictive platforms like ChatGPT. A spokesperson for the Gendebien campaign did not specify which generative engine was used to create the video, nor how much the campaign paid to create it, only noting that was substantially cheaper than a real-world campaign advertisement would have cost. The spokesman also said the campaign plans to do more of these advertisements in the future — as many as once per week for as long as Stefanik remains the NY-21 candidate and doesn't declare her intent to run for Governor — but that all videos will be clearly artificial. "We wanted these to be as aggressive as possible, as clearly AI as possible, so nobody could get confused and think it was real," the Gendebien spokesperson said. This appears to be the first time a candidate for U.S. Congress has used generative video tools, colloquially called "AI" or artificial intelligence, to create a campaign advertisement — it's also the first campaign season where many of these tools are readily available, capable of creating audio and video at the same time, and good enough to create a reasonably believable image. These tools have rules restricting the artificially generated content they can create — while it's not evident which platform the Gendebien campaign is using, leading generative model company OpenAI's DALL-E image generator has rules that prevent it from generating a hyperrealistic image of a specific, identifiable person and only allows depictions in fictionalized, cartoon-like, abstract or satirical applications. The Gendebien advertisement seems to follow those rules — the video does not appear photorealistic at any point, with the faces of both the Stefanik representation and the people in the background regularly morphing mid-scene. In both the Facebook and Twitter versions, the end-card that displays Gendebien's campaign logo, affirming that his campaign paid for the video, also includes a note indicating that "this ad was generated whole or substantially by artificial intelligence." A spokesperson for Stefanik, Alex DeGrasse, said the advertisement is still a fabrication and a lie. "The desperate far left Democrat who made history in the first week of his campaign by hiding his vicious attacks on local correctional officers and pro-illegal amnesty positions now makes history by using sexist, deceitful and shameful AI imagery smearing Congresswoman Stefanik in a digital ad," DeGrasse said. He said that ads attacking Stefanik are unlikely to go over well in a district that has handily reelected her for over a decade. "North country voters will swiftly demand his apology," DeGrasse continued. "And by the way, NY21 voters overwhelmingly support Elise running for governor if she decides to run, where she will demolish Kathy Hochul." The reaction on social media was mixed — on Facebook, comments ranged from critical to supportive, with many people indicating they wanted Stefanik out of office, but many others expressing disappointment in the Gendebien campaign's use of artificially-generated video. "Your message about Stefanik's absence in (the) north country is a great point, but it's undermined by the use of AI video," one comment reads. "Stefanik's real actions show her apathy towards her district, so why resort to an AI generated video? Will all due respect, this is disappointing." DeGrasse also questioned if Gendebien supports Hochul for re-election, a question he has not yet answered. "He won't say because he's a desperate, lying, losing candidate," DeGrasse concluded.
Yahoo
10-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
NY Democrat running for Stefanik's House seat once ridiculed upstate constituents in comparison to migrants: ‘They show up late. They drink too much'
The Dem vying for the House seat vacated by former New York Rep. Elise Stefanik once ridiculed his upstate constituents as too lazy and too boozed-up to work for him compared to migrants. Longshot hopeful Blake Gendebien, who co-owns Twin Mills Farms in Ogdensburg near New York's border with Canada, said during a 2013 interview that local residents could not replace his hard-working Hispanic immigrant employees because they were too messed up. He noted in the interview, which was apparently designed to document rural life in America, that his Hispanic farmhands often work 12-hour days, 'six and half a week. 'That's their choice,' contended Gendebien, who is running for the 21st Congressional District seat vacated by Stefanik, a Republican named by President Trump as the US ambassador to the United Nations. 'Three Hispanic employees. They would need to be replaced by probably six local people,' the Democrat said. But Gendebien said he'd be hard-pressed to find even one decent local replacement worker. 'It's hard to find one local person that doesn't have domestic abuse problems, alcohol problems, wage garnishments,' he claimed. 'So you have all these plans and these [local workers] leave for court all the time because they are in custody battles and child-support battles. It's just awful. 'They show up late. They drink too much. There is just no labor force out there,' Gendebien said. The farmer-turned-candidate said he once bailed out a farm worker who was detained by US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents, posting $10,000 bail. He said the ICE agents 'profile' people based on 'skin color.' Border crossings and illegal immigration are potent political issues, particularly in the more conservative North Country. Gendebien did not respond to a Post request for comment. The Republican Party has not yet settled on its own candidate. But GOP officials blasted Genebien as out of touch with the district. 'Republicans are thrilled by the selection of Democrats of radical Far Left Blake Gendebien, who not only supported Joe Biden's open border policies, but also bailed out illegals from ICE,' said state Republican Party Chairman Ed Cox in a statement. 'Gendebien viciously claimed that local correctional officers 'don't have much self-worth' and disparaged local North Country children as not having 'practical independence and an ability to think,' ' Cox said. 'Far Left Democrat Blake Gendebien even castigated hardworking North Country workers as 'awful' people who 'drank too much.' ' The GOP leader said Democrats 'didn't do their homework' when they selected Gendebien and that he is confident that Republicans will easily hold the seat in the upcoming special election 'because the North Country is unquestionably Trump Country.'
Yahoo
06-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Gendebien selected as Democratic candidate for NY-21 special election
PLATTSBURGH — Blake Gendebien, a dairy farmer from St. Lawrence County, will be the Democratic candidate to run in the upcoming special election in the 21st Congressional District. 'There is a great deal of interest in this seat because there's a razor-thin margin in Congress,' Warren County Democratic Chairwoman Lynne Boecher, who headed the selection process, said. 'He's exceptionally, well qualified and he's in it to win it,' she said, in a telephone interview on Tuesday. Earlier on Tuesday, the 15 county chairmen in the 21st District issued a news release announcing the selection of Gendebien. 'The 15 Democratic Chairmen of NY-21 announced their unanimous support for longtime North Country resident Blake Gendebien as the candidate they will nominate when and if a special election is called,' the news release said. 'Gendebien, owner and President of Twin Mill Farms in Lisbon since 2002, as well as vice-chairman of Agri-Mark Dairy Cooperative covering New York and New England, brings an authentic voice that will fight for sensible solutions to the challenges affecting NY-21 and this nation.' Gendebien said he was thrilled with the selection. 'I'm honored and deeply grateful to each of the 15 Democratic chairs. They have run a thoughtful process that has brought out the best in each of us at a particularly challenging time. No one was expecting a special election, but they stepped up,' Gendebien said. 'This is just the beginning. I'm not going to stop working until we win and can make life in the North Country a whole lot better and a whole lot more affordable.' Republicans quickly labeled Gendebien as being a 'radical far left' politician who supported former President Joe Biden's policies. 'Republicans are thrilled by the selection of Democrats of radical far left Blake Gendebien... Democrats didn't do their homework when they selected Blake Gendebien and his catastrophic statements,' State Republican Chairman Edward Cox, said in a news release. 'Republicans will easily hold this seat in the upcoming special election, because the North Country is unquestionably Trump Country.' The seat will become vacant once Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-Schuylerville), who is awaiting confirmation as Ambassador to the United Nations, resigns from Congress. Boecher said county chairs will take an 'official' vote to confirm Gendebien's nomination, once the special election is scheduled. The Republican Party had not yet completed its candidate selection process, as of Tuesday. The Democratic selection process was deliberative and extensive, with involvement from leaders of all 15 counties in the district, Boecher said. They did extensive demographics research, and determined the party needs a candidate that will appeal to older voters, she said. Chairs initially interviewed 10 potential candidates via Zoom, and then narrowed the field to four finalists, which were interviewed in person. The other three finalists were Paula Collins, a cannabis lawyer from Canton, who unsuccessfully challenged Stefanik in the November election, Dylan Hewitt, a South Glens Falls High School graduate and a former White House trade adviser, and Mary Anito, Boecher said. All were qualified to run, but Gendebien quickly rose to the top of the field, she said. Boecher said county chairs were particularly impressed with his local roots. 'We've experienced a lot them (congressional candidates) who have parachuted in and parachuted out,' she said. 'He said, 'I have 1,200 acres of land and 800 head of cattle, I'm not going anywhere. I am here to stay.' Boecher said chairmen appreciated that Gendebien is a 'political outsider' but not an outsider to the North Country. Cox, the state Republican chairman disputed the depiction of Gendebien as a political neophyte, arguing that the St. Lawrence County farmer has been a reliable Democratic donor. Genedebien is off to a strong start on campaign fundraising. He raised $266,602 in December, receiving contributions from at least 20 states, and had $252,341 in his campaign fund, as of Dec. 31, according to the most recent campaign finance report filed with the Federal Election Commission. Gendebien's campaign announced on Jan. 27 that it had raised more than $500,000, so far in the campaign.
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
New York Democrat eyeing Stefanik's seat ripped Border Patrol, corrections officers in resurfaced interview
The Democratic candidate who will run to replace outgoing Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik in upstate New York can be heard in a resurfaced interview condemning U.S. Border Patrol for apprehending illegal immigrants and disparaging off-duty corrections officers and local American laborers he hired to work on his dairy farm. Blake Gendebien, the owner and president of Twin Mill Farms in Lisbon, New York, since 2002, was tapped Tuesday to run in an eventual special election in New York's 21st Congressional District. The U.S. House seat will be vacated by Stefanik, President Donald Trump's nominee to become U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, but the powerful House Republican still awaits a Senate confirmation vote. With the special election timeline hanging in the balance, the 15 Democratic chairmen of NY-21 announced their unanimous support for Gendebien, championing him as "an authentic voice that will fight for sensible solutions." The Democrats categorized Gendebien, who also serves as vice chairman of the Agri-Mark Dairy Cooperative covering New York and New England, as a husband, father, small business owner and former school board member who "will fight to lower costs and secure our borders." Celebrating him as "an outsider to the political arena," they said Gendebien "embodies the voice and grit that distinguishes this district." Ny Dems Working To Keep Stefanik's House Seat Vacant For Months In Latest Scheme Against Trump: Assemblyman Republican state leadership, however, quickly condemned Gendebien as a "far-left Democrat," arguing that the candidate "not only supported Joe Biden's open border policies, but also bailed out illegals from ICE." Read On The Fox News App New York GOP Chair Ed Cox referenced the dairy farmer's past comments made in a more than hour-long interview with a local newspaper reporter on March 13, 2013. According to the recorded audio reviewed by Fox News Digital, Gendebien voiced frustrations about the labor market in upstate New York. Among his comments, he claimed local correction officers "don't have much self-worth," and described North County workers as not having "practical independence and ability to think," in contrast to his foreign farm laborers. "Far Left Democrat Blake Gendebien even castigated hardworking North Country workers as 'awful' people who 'drank too much,'" Cox said in a statement. "This radical Far Left Democrat is a longtime major donor and groupie of leftist, gun-grabbing, Taxin' Tedra Cobb, a supporter of Kathy Hochul, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, and a public supporter of Biden's inflation policies, which devastated NY21 families. Democrats didn't do their homework when they selected Blake Gendebien and his catastrophic statements. Republicans will easily hold this seat in the upcoming special election, because the North Country is unquestionably Trump Country."In the 2013 interview, Gendebien is heard explaining why he much preferred "Hispanic labor," generalizing local residents as having drinking problems and being involved in child custody disputes. "If it weren't for the Hispanic labor, I wouldn't be doing this," Gendebien said while describing the process for milking cows. "So there's three Hispanic employees. They would need to be replaced by probably six local people. And it's hard to find one person that does not have domestic abuse problems, alcohol problems, wage garnishments." "So when you hire these local guys, all of a sudden you're bombarded with social program stuff like what do you call it? I don't even – I'm not in that world, so I don't know," he went on. "So the court will call you. Is Brian showing up to work? What is Brian making? He has a child with this girl. He has a child with this girl. He has a court date. He needs to appear on this day. So you've got all of these plans and these guys have to leave for court all the time because they're in custody battles and, what's it called, child support battles. And they want you to lie and tell that you don't make this money. And it's just awful. And they show up late. They show up. They drink too much. There is just no labor force out there." Regarding other farm help, Gendebien said he hired a corrections officer. Stefanik Looks Back To Fiery Exchanges With College Leaders In Senate Confirmation Hearing: 'Watershed Moment"You probably know that they don't have much self-worth in their jobs as corrections officers, so they'll work extra time and get maybe three, four weeks' vacation. And in that vacation they will do things, plumbing or electrician work or something, just so that they feel some self-worth," Gendebien told the reporter. "So we gave him all hunting rights. You can hunt all 800 acres and he does the work for basically materials. But he also gets some self-worth. He gets the hunting rights, and we get a guy that we trust to do a lot of work and a good deal. He did my house, he did the barn. He did a lot of things." At one point, Gendebien complained that a Border Patrol agent took one of his workers, an illegal immigrant, into custody. "So Border Patrol is up and down this road," Gendebien relayed to the reporter, according to the audio archived by the Library of Congress. "As far as I know, these guys are illegal. I have all their paperwork, and I'm not obligated to check. Not obligated to E-Verify. So I get the same paperwork from them as I get from anyone else. And we move along. But Border Patrol will profile by skin color, crossing the road and they'll stop. And then they will interrogate and scream at the person." After Border Patrol confronted one farmworker and took him into custody, Gendebien said he called up the high school's soccer coach, a 30-year Border Patrol agent, who told him that new Border Patrol agents sent to upstate New York from places like Arizona want to make more apprehensions, causing some friction within leadership at their command. Gendebien said the man told him, "I don't pick up farmworkers, but we get young men and women from Arizona that are gung-ho, and all they want to do is pick people up. And he said when they bring someone in, we have to support them. We can't say no because then they'll want our jobs. They want our senior jobs. So they'll quickly say, 'You are, you know, you're not supporting me with this illegal person.'" One Christmas Eve, Gendebien said, he bailed out an illegal immigrant for $10,000 so that he had help on the farm over the holiday. While talking about how his family came to live in North County, Gendebien said his father-in-law was a first-generation Cuban immigrant who was a superintendent of an apartment building in New York City, while his own parents worked in the Peace Corps in South America and got kicked out of Bolivia with other Americans "when it turned communist." His parents bought a farm in upstate in New York, where Gendebien said they felt like outsiders at the time. Because his family speaks Spanish, Gendebien said they have an advantage compared to other farmers who do not while training foreign workers. "But here I speak Spanish, Carmen speaks Spanish, mom speaks Spanish, dad speaks Spanish," Gendebien said. "So we can explain things to do. And they're very capable. Incredibly capable of incredibly practical knowledge and capable. A thing that the local kids around here don't have. They don't have a practical independence and ability to think and knowledge like these guys do. Which is too bad these other farms aren't getting that out of them, mainly because of the language barrier." Fox News Digital reached out to Gendebien's campaign, but they did not immediately article source: New York Democrat eyeing Stefanik's seat ripped Border Patrol, corrections officers in resurfaced interview
