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{"id":24748,"date":"2026-06-24T02:32:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T02:32:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/trumps-preferred-candidate-wins-primary-to-succeed-elise-stefanik\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T02:32:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T02:32:20","slug":"trumps-preferred-candidate-wins-primary-to-succeed-elise-stefanik","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/trumps-preferred-candidate-wins-primary-to-succeed-elise-stefanik\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s preferred candidate wins primary to succeed Elise Stefanik"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>ALBANY, New York \u2014 President Donald Trump\u2019s preferred candidate to succeed Rep. Elise Stefanik cruised to victory in his Republican primary Tuesday evening.<\/p>\n<p>Anthony Constantino, the CEO of custom sticker company Sticker Mule, defeated Assemblymember Robert Smullen, a retired Marine colonel, for the nomination in a deep red upstate New York House district.<\/p>\n<p>Trump, along with MAGA figures Roger Stone and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, backed Constantino\u2019s bid, casting aside Smullen\u2019s endorsement from the New York Republican Committee.<\/p>\n<p>Constantino\u2019s victory underscores the power of Trump\u2019s endorsement in a district he has won during each of his three presidential campaigns. His win also highlights how a candidate who\u2019s fashioned himself in a MAGA mold can continue to resonate in a largely rural and predominantly white district that has struggled economically for decades.<\/p>\n<p>A former boxer, Constantino has dabbled in music, producing songs that praise Trump. He initially drew Stone\u2019s attention after erecting a large \u201cVote for Trump\u201d sign on a building in Amsterdam, N.Y., a city less than an hour west of Albany. Constantino also gifted Trump a bronze statue in the president\u2019s likeness.<\/p>\n<p>The circus-like primary became a bruising battle between a first-time candidate who channeled Trump-style promotion and attacks against an establishment favorite with a long, accomplished resume.<\/p>\n<p>Constantino referred to Smullen as \u201cSlime Bob\u201d and called him \u201cevil\u201d in a text message to his rival. Smullen, in turn, called Constantino \u201cunfit\u201d and knocked his prior enrollment as a Democrat.<\/p>\n<p>The race became so bitter that Smullen refused to shake Constantino\u2019s hand at the conclusion of their only televised debate.<\/p>\n<p>Constantino poured $10 million of his own money into the race and spent more than $3.8 million on TV ads, saturating upstate media market airwaves. Smullen\u2019s campaign spent a fraction of that amount, more than $500,000 in ad spending, according to the tracking firm AdImpact.<\/p>\n<p>The sticker impresario also displayed a marketing flare, printing t-shirts that touted his Trump endorsement.<\/p>\n<p>Smullen leaned heavily on his biography and background as a combat Marine. But he often found himself responding \u2014 sometimes angrily \u2014 to Constantino\u2019s barrage of attacks.<\/p>\n<p>Constantino will now have to make peace with some New York power brokers as he pivots to the general election. Smullen is set to remain on the November ballot with the backing of the state Conservative Party\u2019s ballot line. Constantino is being sued for defamation by that party\u2019s leader, Jerry Kassar.<\/p>\n<p>The House seat opened after Stefanik, who has represented the area for more than a decade, announced she would leave Congress after scuttling her gubernatorial campaign. Stefanik was previously Trump\u2019s nominee for United Nations ambassador, but that was yanked amid concerns her vacancy would complicate the House Republicans\u2019 narrow majority.<\/p>\n<p>Stefanik did not endorse in the race to replace her.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ALBANY, New York \u2014 President Donald Trump\u2019s preferred candidate to succeed Rep. Elise Stefanik cruised to victory in his Republican primary Tuesday evening. Anthony Constantino, the CEO of custom sticker company Sticker Mule, defeated Assemblymember Robert Smullen, a retired Marine colonel, for the nomination in a deep red upstate New York House district. Trump, along [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24748\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}