Congress
How a Trump sign could pave the way to Congress
ALBANY, New York — A 42-year-old boxer in upstate New York is leveraging the 100-foot sign he built to support Donald Trump — and allies like Roger Stone and the president-elect’s son — into a bid to succeed Rep. Elise Stefanik.
The man behind the sign, Anthony Constantino, wants Stefanik’s House seat and has been meeting GOP leaders with the power to select a nominee to replace her.
Constantino, who founded the printing company Sticker Mule, has ties to the Trump family. He told Blue Light News he ate dinner with Donald Trump Jr. earlier this year and visited Mar-a-Lago in November. He’s also received support and unpaid advice from Stone, a longtime Trump ally.
Now, Constantino is applying the recognition he received for his enthusiastic Trump support — and a public fight with local officials over his sign — to a House run. His platform, in large part, is to counteract hatred toward the incoming president.
“The country needs more people like President Trump, Elon Musk, people like myself who don’t aspire to be politically involved people, but just want to do what’s right for the country,” Constantino said in an interview.
A special election for the sprawling, heavily Republican district — which runs from the outskirts of Albany to the Canadian border — has not been called, and Stefanik remains a House member as her nomination to the U.N. is pending Senate confirmation. A direct endorsement in the race from Trump or Stefanik would likely be one the biggest factors for county leaders in making their selection. It would also be highly coveted by the candidates, but many have kept a low profile — in part out of deference to Stefanik and to not be seen as over eager.
“Why would you not want to hear the input from Team Elise and Team Trump?” Fulton County GOP Chair Susan McNeil said. “Of course we want to hear from them.”
Trump has dipped into the House GOP conference to stock his administration — selections that will trigger special elections in states like New York and Florida. Those moves will temporarily shrink his party’s already narrow majority, but the incoming president could solidify his hold over the party by choosing favored successors for those lawmakers.
In the past, Trump has had a mixed record with his political endorsements — with sometimes disastrous consequences for Republicans. He backed scandal-scarred Senate candidates like Alabama’s Roy Moore and Herschel Walker in Georgia; both lost to Democrats.
Constantino, who has a flair for self-promotion on conservative podcasts and cable TV, fits into the mold of a new wave of candidates who’ve emerged in the Trump era. He has a near-constant presence on X where he shares his media appearances, highlights his business and promotes charitable causes.
If he becomes the nominee, he would leapfrog stalwart Republicans who are also vying for Stefanik’s seat. The group includes state lawmakers, a former House candidate and the party’s 2022 nominee for U.S. Senate, Joe Pinion. But Constantino has taken a more circuitous route to both the campaign and politics, underscoring how Trump has upended the regular order of the Republican Party — even on a local level.
Trump’s transition team did not respond to messages seeking comment on a possible endorsement.
Constantino is a former Democrat, having registered in the party when a high school friend was running for office in Albany. He recently changed his registration to the GOP, but one Republican county chair told Blue Light News they did not see the party conversion as a deal-breaker.
All of the prospective candidates are pro-Trump, in keeping with a party that has been subsumed by the president-elect’s base. Stefanik, who was initially critical of Trump, zealously defended him during his first impeachment trial.
But Constantino fits into a different category entirely with his support of Trump. Compared to his rival Republicans, he would likely draw the most national attention.
The boxing pro gained fame among Trump supporters over the summer when he constructed a giant sign in the upstate New York city of Amsterdam in support of the GOP presidential nominee. Constantino said he was moved to do so after the attempt on Trump’s life at a Pennsylvania rally.
“One of the biggest problems in the country is anti-Trump hate and hatred toward Trump supporters,” Constantino said.
The sign led to controversy, and the city’s Democratic mayor sought a court order for it to be removed on the grounds it was too distracting for drivers. Constantino’s subsequent fight with the local government turned him into an overnight star with Trump’s MAGA base — and with the incoming president. Stone took notice and reached out, and Constantino received a letter of support from Trump himself. He later dined with Don Jr.
A state court ultimately sided with him over the sign, allowing it to stay up in time for a party. The mayor, Michael Cinquanti, did not return messages seeking comment.
The dispute with municipal bureaucrats and elected officials brought Constantino attention from conservative media outlets like Newsmax and Fox News. Stone, who has been active in New York politics over the years, praised him on a podcast, comparing him to Trump and Ronald Reagan.
“I would argue that your lack of political experience is not a negative, it’s actually a plus,” Stone told him. “This is what the Founding Fathers actually envisioned.”
Stone did not return messages seeking comment. But Constantino — who acknowledged “there is a mixed opinion about Roger” — is taking advice from the notorious Republican operative whose 40-month prison sentence for obstruction was commuted by Trump in 2020.
“Roger appreciated what I did with the sign,” he said. “I got to know him through that. He’s been one of my biggest advocates.”
Constantino founded Sticker Mule, a company that sells customized stickers, labels and packaging in 2010. He employs more than 1,200 people and is based in Amsterdam, an upstate city about 40 minutes west of Albany. The majority of the company’s workers are based in upstate New York, but it also has a presence in Italy to service the European market. In 2022, Constantino became a professional boxer. He has a 4-1 record, which includes three professional fights, but has put his fighting career on hold.
Entering the political ring, of course, is a different type of challenge. He formed a campaign committee this month and, if he’s not tapped by local Republican leaders to run in the special election, plans to run outright for the GOP nomination in the 2026 election.
Constantino will fund his campaign with $2.6 million he said was earned when investing in the electric vehicle company Tesla — stock purchased when the share price dipped after Musk bought Twitter. Constantino posted a screenshot purporting to be his brokerage account as evidence he has the money.
Republican county chairs in the district are not expected to make their decision until after Stefanik receives Senate confirmation. Still, some local GOP leaders are intrigued by Constantino’s unusual path to politics.
“Like millions of Americans he’s become politically aware following Donald Trump — and a new brand of politics,” Saratoga County Republican Chair Joe Suhrada said.
Less than a month ago, a huge bipartisan Senate majority voted to honor the late Sen. Lindsey Graham and pass legislation he pushed aimed at sanctioning Russia’s trading partners.
Now the bill is at serious risk of languishing in the House, where it is suffering from significant Democratic opposition, lack of Republican enthusiasm and fading impetus to honor the late South Carolina senator.
GOP leaders omitted it from a list of bills to be voted on this week, and as top Republican lawmakers filed into the Capitol Monday after a five-week summer recess, none said passing the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia Act was anywhere near top of mind.
“We just came from a chairmen’s meeting, and nobody brought it up,” House Rules Chair Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) said in an interview.
Asked whether the bill might pass through her committee on the way to the House floor, she said, “I have no idea. Nobody’s talking about it.”
Speaker Mike Johnson acknowledged an uphill battle Monday and was noncommittal on whether the bill would hit the House floor after passing the Senate on an 86-11 vote.
“We’ll see,” Johnson said, blaming Democratic opposition for the uncertainty. “We’ve been very consistent on taking a strong hand against Russia. So we’ll see what happens.”
The measure’s backers in the House and Senate argue it would give the White House new leverage as it leans on Russia to end the war in Ukraine — including by handing President Donald Trump new tariff tools.
But with the GOP majority split over intervening in Russia’s war with Ukraine and many Democrats wary of giving Trump any new tariff powers, the bill doesn’t appear to be a top priority for Republican leaders as they plan out their final legislative sprint before the election.
Republicans are also openly speculating whether Johnson will keep the House in session for four weeks in September as scheduled — particularly if lawmakers pass a bill as expected Tuesday to punt government funding to December.
Johnson is already facing internal resistance to getting his scheduled bills on the floor this week, with some hard-right members unhappy about how GOP leaders have handled government funding and other issues. If they vote down a procedural measure setting up debate on those bills Tuesday, that could spell the end of the pre-election House session.
“I don’t know if we’re going to pass anything,” said Rep. Keith Self (R-Texas), one of the ultraconservatives threatening to frustrate the leadership’s plans.
At the same time, a handful of hawkish Republicans are warning that the House needs to stay and bring the sanctions bill across the finish line before heading home for campaign season.
“I think it’s very important to pass the sanctions bill,” said Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), a defense hawk who is retiring from the House. “It’s a failure to not do so.”
Even if leaders make a push to get the sanctions bill on the floor, it’s unclear if it has enough Republican support to pass. Several conservatives who have vocally opposed Ukraine aid in the past said they haven’t looked into the legislation yet.
“Haven’t seen it. Haven’t heard about it. All I can say is in 14 years I’ve never voted to sanction a sovereign country,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) said in an interview Monday.
While leaders could seek to skirt Republican opposition by using a fast-track procedure requiring a two-thirds-majority vote, it’s unclear if there are enough Democrats to push it over that threshold.
Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries expressed “serious concerns” with the measure at a news conference Monday, saying top Democrats are worried that the bill “risks providing tariff and sanctions authority to Donald Trump and his administration that we believe they will abuse.”
The Democrats who are opposed include the party’s leaders on the Foreign Affairs and Ways and Means committees — Reps. Greg Meeks of New York and Richard Neal of Massachusetts, respectively — who argue that Trump already has all the tariff powers he needs.
“Donald Trump already has ample authority to impose sanctions on the companies, individuals, and vessels propping up a Russian war machine that continues its deadly attacks on Ukraine,” they wrote in a Monday joint statement with Democratic Rep.. Don Beyer of Virginia and Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. “Congress does not need to greenlight new tariff authority for the President to impose those sanctions on Russia today.”
Rep. Brad Schneider of Illinois, leader of the centrist New Democrat Coalition, also opposes the sanctions bill and said in an interview Monday, “I’m opposed to giving the executive branch more authority that was rightly placed with the legislative branch a very long time ago.”
“We’ll see and evaluate if it comes to the floor,” Rep. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, the No. 2 House Democrat, said in an interview. “But there’s a great deal of concern about giving this president, who continues to drive up costs with tariffs for working Americans, even more authority to do that.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries blasted Republicans Monday for being “pro-data center without any restraints,” making his strongest rebuke yet of the tech industry’s massive infrastructure buildout as it becomes a key issue in midterm campaigns.
“Donald Trump and Republicans are divorced from reality,” Jeffries said at a Capitol Hill news conference. “They think that the affordability crisis is a hoax. Donald Trump and Republicans have made clear they love inflation. Donald Trump and Republicans have told the American people directly, ‘We don’t think about your personal financial situation.’”
“So the Republicans — it should come as no surprise — are pro-data center without any restraints,” he continued.
His criticism of Republicans’ approach to artificial intelligence and the infrastructure needed to power it comes amid a groundswell of voter frustration in key battleground districts about the impact of data centers on their communities.
Jeffries told Blue Light News earlier this year protecting consumers from rising electricity costs associated with the data center boom would be a priority on Democrats’ should they win the majority.
President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social Monday that communities that reject data centers will end up “backwards and poor.”
Jeffries specifically hit Republicans for policies embedded in their sweeping 2025 tax-cuts-focused domestic policy bill.
“House Republicans voted to preempt state and local authorities from regulating data centers at all,” Jeffries said. “And every single House Republican but one or two voted to unleash data centers on the American people in an unfettered fashion. That’s facts, right there.”
He specifically blasted vulnerable Republican Reps. Mike Lawler of New York and David Valadao of California for voting to “give tax credits to people building massive data centers in communities across the country, particularly in rural America, without restriction.”
“They can try to run away from their votes right now,” Jeffries said. “We will not let them hide.”
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will speak at the Republican Study Committee’s weekly lunch Wednesday, according to two people familiar with the plans. The visit to Capitol Hill comes as more lawmakers express concerns about the burgeoning trade war President Donald Trump is escalating with Canada just months before the midterm elections.
House Foreign Affairs Chair Brian Mast (R-Fla.) will also be speaking to the group of House conservatives.
-
Uncategorized2 years ago
Bob Good to step down as Freedom Caucus chair this week
-
Politics2 years agoFormer Kentucky AG Daniel Cameron launches Senate bid
-
The Dictatorship2 years agoLuigi Mangione acknowledges public support in first official statement since arrest
-
The Josh Fourrier Show2 years agoDOOMSDAY: Trump won, now what?
-
Politics2 years agoFormer ‘Squad’ members launching ‘Bowman and Bush’ YouTube show
-
Politics2 years agoBlue Light News’s Editorial Director Ryan Hutchins speaks at Blue Light News’s 2025 Governors Summit
-
The Dictatorship2 years agoPete Hegseth’s tenure at the Pentagon goes from bad to worse
-
The Dictatorship12 months agoMike Johnson sums up the GOP’s arrogant position on military occupation with two words