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OGDENSBURG — Nestled way up in a corner of the North Country where moose crossing signs outnumber gas stations, dairy farmer Blake Gendebien embodies the Democratic Party’s next great hope.

Blake clearly has both the direct knowledge and the experience to work as our representative in the House for all of us dealing with the daily tasks of feeding our families, handling health issues and other matters important in our lives.

Also in attendance was congressional candidate Blake Gendebien, a Lisbon-area dairy farmer who is running as a Democrat in New York’s 21st Congressional District. “It’s 2026. Why is healthcare getting worse?” he said. “When you lose your primary care, it’s not just an inconvenience. It’s the difference between catching something early with your doctor and ending up in an emergency room because you had nowhere else to go. Primary care is supposed to be the front door to the healthcare system and when that door closes, people don’t stop getting sick. They just end up sicker and they end up costing the system more before anyone catches it.”

Congressional candidate Blake Gendebein also spoke at the hearing, warning of the downstream effects of losing primary care access. “When you lose your primary care, it’s not just an inconvenience. It’s the difference between catching something early with your doctor and ending up in the emergency room because you have nowhere else to go,” Gendebein said.

Blake Gendebien, the Democrat running to represent the 21st Congressional District in Congress, raised more than $800,000 in the second quarter of this year, putting his total raised at nearly $6 million.

NEW YORK — A new internal poll shows a Democratic House candidate is in a dead heat with his Republican challenger in an upstate New York district President Donald Trump won by 20 points in 2024.

Gendebien handily won the primary 62 to 33 percent, according to unofficial results posted by the state Board of Elections.

St. Lawrence County is Gendebien’s home turf. He was born and raised in Lisbon and returned to the area a few years after college. He and his wife, Carmen, raised their three sons on a dairy farm that’s grown to 500 cows and 1,200 acres.

Mr. Gendebien will have broader appeal, and his policy ideas seem more grounded and achievable.

It seemed like Blake Gendebien knew every person in the Tim Hortons on the outskirts of this city.