NY-21 TOWN HALL ROUND UP: North Country Dairy Farmer Blake Gendebien, Democrat for NY-21, Hosts Town Halls Throughout the District

Gendebien hosted town halls in Mohawk, Moreau, Plattsburgh, Potsdam, Rome, Canajoharie, and Malone in the Month of April

Lisbon, NY – This past month, dairy farmer and small business owner Blake Gendebien reached voters where they are, hosting seven town halls and addressing his district’s top priorities: making life more affordable for working families, uplifting small businesses, fixing our broken immigration system, and increasing access to rural health care.

From Plattsburgh to Rome, Gendebien spoke with over 850 voters throughout the month about how he’ll bring a farmer’s get-it-done approach to Congress to lower grocery costs, support small businesses, and ensure seniors, families, and veterans have access to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits.

 

See how Gendebien is connecting with communities across NY-21:

Rome Sentinel: Blake Gendebien pitches unity in NY-21 bid

During the town hall event, Gendebien touched on topics like rural healthcare, immigration, supporting veterans, education, small businesses and farms, and more.

“These are not divisive issues: veterans’ benefits, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, immigration reform, supporting our small businesses,” he said. “These are for northern New York. These are for the Mohawk Valley. These are for Rome. These are for everybody.”

He spoke about how important the Affordable Care Act was to his family. “When the Affordable Care Act was passed, it changed our lives,” he said. “We had better healthcare, and we could afford things that we couldn’t afford before. Our three boys have had a better life because of the Affordable Care Act.”

“Almost 50% of this district is over 65. We are all going to need healthcare providers to take care of us,” he said. “And what this is doing by pulling healthcare from rural America, we’re just increasing the mortality rate. Is that the goal? It shouldn’t be. We need to take care of people and make sure the benefits they have earned can go places, can go to the care they deserve.”

Gendebien said that more funding and resources for the immigration system. “If you remove immigrant labor from the equation, dairy product prices go up 93%. … Let’s fix immigration. Let’s have some courage to acknowledge how important these people are to our economy, our system.”

 

NBC 5 Plattsburgh: NY-21 Democrat Blake Gendebien holds town hall in Plattsburgh

The town hall, held at the Strand Theatre, saw a large crowd gather to hear from Gendebien.

During the town hall, Gendebien engaged with local residents, who had the chance to ask him questions on issues impacting the district. Attendees expressed a strong connection with the candidate.

Naj Wikoff, an attendee from Keene Valley, praised Gendebien’s approachability and genuine demeanor. “People need the opportunity to share their concerns, share their feelings, ask questions, and they need to hear somebody who will listen to them. What you came across about Blake is so genuine — he’s a farmer, and he’s so connected,” Wikoff said.

Another attendee, Walker Moore from Peru, expressed confidence in Gendebien’s ability to represent the district, even in a competitive race against Stefanik. “Now, this is someone who will represent us. And I feel confident that he can win,” Moore said.

 

Daily Gazette: Democratic congressional hopeful Gendebien holds Canajoharie town hall

“The vision for this campaign is to focus on local issues that we all care about,” Gendebien said after the town hall. “To focus on making sure that dinner is affordable, making sure our groceries are affordable, making sure we can afford to live in this district.”

“I am committed to fixing immigration reform, securing our border, making sure that we remove criminals with due process. These are things that we all can agree on,” he said.

On policy, Gendebien is anti-tariff and pro-immigration-reform and said that he prioritizes health care access for seniors and veterans.

When asked about gun reform during the town hall, he said he “doesn’t want to take everyone’s guns away,” noting that he supports the Second Amendment and is a gun owner himself, and believes “universal background checks are necessary” and safe-storage laws are “very important.”

Gendebien’s message seemed to resonate with attendees. “I thought [the town hall] was wonderful,” [Rida Pineyro] said. “It’s about time that somebody stands up for our district.”

 

WKTV: Blake Gendebien Holds Town Hall in Rome

Anchor: Gendebien held a town hall meeting at the Copper City Connection in Rome last night. He wanted to introduce himself to this part of the district and share ideas. And during the Q&A session, one of the biggest concerns people had was how he would maintain rural health care. He also stressed his points of fixing the border problem and tackling inflation.

Blake Gendebien: Putting the North Country first means fixing immigration, securing our border, reducing costs at the dinner table, making sure that we have access to affordable health care and access to health care, and then make sure that we have opportunities throughout the North Country, throughout Central New York, throughout the Hudson Valley, for people to not just get by, but thrive, and a representative that actually cares about them.

 

WWNY: Gendebien talks immigration, farm workers at town hall meeting

Anchor: Drawing nearly 100 people on Saturday, Blake Gendebien held a town hall in Potsdam. The Democrat wants to be the next person to represent the 21st Congressional District.

At this event, Gendebien says he talked about immigration and farm workers. He says his campaign is redefining what it means to be a Democrat running in rural America.

 

WAMC: NY 21st District Democratic Congressional candidate Blake Gendebien holds a town hall in Plattsburgh

The Democrat told the crowd about his background and said his campaign is not a vanity project.

“This is for you,” Gendebien told the crowd. “This is for my friends and neighbors. This is for the North Country and making this a better place to live. And we need to protect those programs that help make our lives better.”

“The chairs, who I’m very grateful for, they selected a very moderate pragmatic candidate in myself,” Gendebien responded. “I am very close to the middle and I’m not going to apologize for being a moderate leader. I’m not going to apologize for wanting to work on things that we can actually get done.”

“In no way shape or form does me being a moderate mean that I am not supportive of the LGBTQ community. One of the main reasons I’m here is because I don’t like bullies. I have an aversion to bullying,” emphasized Gendebien. “I will stand with anybody. I can’t stand to watch people get mistreated. And I’ve been watching the words, the dog whistles, the awful, awful rhetoric and awful language. I can’t stand it and it’s one of the reasons why I’m here.”

 

North Country Now: Lisbon congressional hopeful holds town hall meeting in Potsdam

Congressional hopeful Blake Gendebien held a town hall meeting in Potsdam where he spoke with 90 attendees.

On immigration reform, Gendebien said his campaign is focused on “securing the border, but not with offense. It’s by hiring additional immigration judges. It’s by giving ICE and border patrol officers the resources they need to do their job. It is also by allowing state and local police to communicate with border patrol and ICE officers. One of the advantages of having [representation] from the North Country is that we have friends who are border patrol, state police, local police, and ICE officers, and they offer common-sense advice,” the press release said.

He also called for less agricultural reforms. “There’s too much bureaucratic red tape… It’s way too difficult to manage and work through. We need a farm worker modernization program that will be easier to navigate, easier to work with, and it will drive food costs down.”

Gendebien said his campaign is for the North Country. “It is not a campaign for one side or the other. We’re a pragmatic reflection of the North Country, and that’s what’s different about this campaign and that’s why we’re having so much success. We’re redefining what it means to be a Democrat running in rural America. We’re there for the working man, working woman.”

 

###

 

Born and raised on a farm in the North Country, Blake and his wife Carmen have raised their three sons on the Twin Mill Farm in Lisbon, growing the farm to 500 head of cattle. Blake and Carmen also started The Jules of Life Foundation, which provides resources and support to North Country families battling pediatric cancer. For the past 10 years, Blake has served as the Vice Chair of the Cooperative Board of Agri-Mark where he represented the interests of farmers from across the region. He is a former member of the Lisbon Central School Board, and was a longtime junior varsity basketball coach.