Blake Gendebien has seen a rapid change in his own political prospects.
A month ago, the St. Lawrence County farmer was ramping up for what was expected to be one of the most closely watched special elections in the country to replace a representative headed to presidential Cabinet. Now, Gendebien is in it for the long-haul, campaigning against Rep. Elise M. Stefanik with an eye, for the time being, toward November 2026.
Gendebien isn’t phased by the switchup. In a recent phone interview, the 48-year-old told the Watertown Daily Times that the change in plans has been good for his farming business, and given him more time to meet voters in New York’s 21st Congressional District.
“I am very, very happy I get to plant my own crops,” he said. “If we were still in the special election, I would’ve had to look for help from the neighbor, but now I have a little bit more time to handle it myself.”
There are a lot of unanswered questions still. Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, hasn’t sent a clear signal on what she will do in 2026, now that she is back full-time as the north country’s member of Congress. She’s floated running for governor, kept the door open to another congressional term, and President Donald J. Trump has hinted he may move to nominate her for another Cabinet position later this year.
“I’m not sure who I’m going to be running against. I don’t know if the Trump administration is going to ask the Congresswoman back for a Cabinet position. That’s always a possibility,” Gendebien said. “I’m not sure if she’s serious about running for governor or not. Part of me thinks I will not be running against her in the midterms.”
He said that doesn’t really change his message or approach.
“My message, about doing what’s best for people in this district, is not going to change,” he said. “My methods, my strategy, my tactics are not going to change.”
Gendebien said he has slowed the pace of his campaign. He is no longer ramping up ahead of a 90-day sprint for voter support, and is instead in the extremely early stages of a more traditional campaign that could take months to a year to heat up.
He continues to tour the district and speak with voters. Gendebien has hosted a series of town halls across NY-21, visiting small towns, rural communities and larger population centers in the east, west and south of the sprawling district. Gendebien paid Croghan, Lewis County, a visit on Saturday.
He said it’s giving locals a chance to meet and talk about the political issues of the day — a rare opportunity, as Stefanik has not done an in-person town hall for her constituents in years.
Across those town halls, Gendebien said there are a lot of shared concerns; affordability and the cost of living, international trade and business with Canadian companies to the north, hours of operation for northern border checkpoints, and immigration enforcement in rural communities and at farms across the region.
All of those issues are tied closely to action from the Trump administration — and Gendebien said Republicans, Democrats and independents alike are worried.
“They’re certainly blaming the policies coming out of D.C., especially when it comes to our relationship with Canada,” he said.
There’s wide evidence that Trump’s push to start a trade war with Canada, the imposition of wide-ranging tariffs and repeated attacks on Canadian sovereignty have hurt the economy of the north country. The region is closely integrated with Canada; north country farms sell to Canadian markets and vice versa, local companies source goods from Canada and Canadian companies operate outposts in the region. Gendebien said that he himself has struggled to get John Deere equipment parts because the local John Deere dealer buys from warehouses in Canada.
“I just ordered three bearings for an indoor pump. They were held up for over a week coming out of the warehouse, and that’s very unusual, that’s new,” he said.
Gendebien is a dairy farmer who also grows alfalfa, soybeans and other crops. He said the impact on local farms is hitting both operations, but the impact on dairy markets is especially damaging.
“We make so much milk that we have to export one day’s worth of milk for every week,” he said. “If that doesn’t get exported, the milk price that American farmers will receive will tank. If there are retaliatory tariffs from other countries, we can’t export.”
Similar stories are repeated across the district — reflecting how close to home many of the decisions from the Trump administration are hitting, he said.
Immigration enforcement is a similarly hot topic. In Croghan, Gendebien said some people asked about the family who lives on a farm in Jefferson County, a mother and her three school-age kids who were taken by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in late March. The community of Sackets Harbor rallied to secure their return to the region. The family was released back home to Sackets after being held in a detention center in Texas for more than a week
Gendebien has been frank about the reliance on immigrant farm labor in the U.S., and especially in New York. He has called for lawmakers to work on a new immigration system that would permit more immigrant workers to work full-time on farms across the country.
Gendebien refers to the Farm Workers Modernization Act as a model, but said it’s still imperfect.
“It has some holes in it, because there’s not a farmer in Congress making sure those gaps are filled, and that’s what we have to make sure we have to fix this,” he said.
That bill has passed the House before, but has never seen action in the Senate. It would establish a new process to allow farm workers to get official agriculture worker status that gives them working rights in the U.S., reform the H-2A visa program for seasonal work and create an electronic verification system.
Gendebien has critiqued reforms in Washington, including the Farm Workers Modernization Act, for missing the needs of the U.S. dairy industry, who need work all year.
“We’re always limiting the number of people,” he said. “We need to make sure there’s enough people to do the work, and we need to understand that while there are plenty of seasonal industries and crops, in the dairy business it’s 24/7, 365, every single year, after year, after year.”
As time progresses, the entrenched impact of the tariffs and hostility with Canada, heightened immigration enforcement on farms will grow. Gendebien said the damage has already been done on a lot of fronts.
“We lose our relationships, we get locked out of markets, supply chains change and other countries step up,” he said. “We lose the power to sell our valuable products overseas and bring that money back to North American farmers.”