Cries of Foul in GOP Plot to BLOCK Upstate Businessman Anthony Constantino and Newsmax’s Joe Pinion from the Contest to Replace Elise Stefanik

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Jan 18, 2025

When President Donald Trump announced that upstate New York Congresswoman Elise  Stefanik would serve as his UN Ambassador it set off a spirited competition for the Republican and Conservative Party nominations in the special election that will take place when Stefanik vacates her seat in the 21st Congressional District.

Unlike Florida Congressman Mike Waltz, who resigned his seat in order to become National Security Advisor, Stefanik has been told to remain a member of the House at the insistence of Speaker Mike Johnson, as well as President Donald Trump, to ensure that Republicans have the barest of majorities until the vacancy of Waltz and the vacancy of Congressman Matt Gaetz, who resigned, are both filled in a special election in April.

When Stefanik, who is expected to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, vacates the seat, Governor Kathy Hochul will declare a date for the special election, traditionally 90 days from the date of the resignation.

Under Republican party by-laws, there will be no primary to select a candidate, and the candidate is to be selected in a convention held by the Republican County Committees, with each County Chairman having their vote percentage based on their share of the voter population in the 21st District.

The Conservative Party, whose nomination is crucial to Republicans, have a different process by which their State Executive Committee fills the vacancy, although local County Chairman are expected to have “input.” Their importance comes from the unusual ability for one candidate to be nominated by multiple parties under New York State election law and win the cumulative vote.

According to reports, the contest to replace Stefanik has reportedly already gone off the rails.

As first reported by National File, it all started when Republican County Chairs held Zoom interviews with all 12 potential candidates.

Following those interviews, Politico’s New York Playbook reported that three candidates had emerged as front-runners:

“Three candidates are widely viewed as frontrunners for the Republican nod: Assemblymember Chris Tague, Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin and state Sen. Dan Stec, three people familiar with the discussions said.”

All three of these candidates should trouble America First Republicans:

But when National File reached out to multiple County Chairs, they got a much different story, which Big League Politics has corroborated.

The interviews themselves were rather cordial, with each candidate having time to pitch why they should be nominated, and the Chairs lobbing questions at them.

A few candidates reportedly stood out, particularly Sticker Mule CEO Anthony Constantino and Newsmax host Joe Pinion, both of which are political outsiders who have strong pro-Trump accolades.

Constantino, as an upstate New York businessman, has brought thousands of manufacturing jobs upstate with his highly successful internet printing company. He was thrust into the spotlight after making a viral social media post calling for an end to anti-Trump hate in the wake of the failed Trump assassination, which he then emailed to his millions of customers. 


The millionaire businessman again made waves over his fight with the Democrat Mayor of his town, who tried to throw him in jail over the massive ‘Vote for Trump’ sign he erected atop his largest factory building in his hometown of Amsterdam, NY.

A County Chair tells Big League Politics they were particularly impressed that despite having no political experience, he was able to outline a clear agenda that focuses on issues important to those in upstate New York, particularly his pledge to fight for the installation of a Missile Defense System for the East Coast at Fort Drum, an issue that was championed by Stefanik in the House.

Pinion is the former host of “Saturday Agenda w/Joe Pinion” on Newsmax TV, before leaving to run for the U.S. Senate in 2022, where he challenged Chuck Schumer as the first African American nominated for U.S. Senate in the history of New York State by either major Party. He makes regular appearances on Newsmax and Fox News to provide political commentary.

His strong communications skills, fine-tuned from his years on cable news, are what set him apart according to multiple County Chairs.

Other candidates like Robert Smullen, a three-term assemblyman and retired U.S. Marine Corps Colonel, also made strong cases for why they should be nominated.

But none of what these candidates said seemed to matter to a small rogue group of Republican County Chairs who waited until the interviews ended to make their true intentions clear.

They swiftly pressured all the County Chairs into casting votes for their preferred candidates, and made the baffling decision to use a ranked choice voting system, which not only violates state party by-laws, but does not take the proportional vote share of each county into account.

An unnamed GOP Chairman told National File that “the subgroup of GOP County Chairs insisting that the list of contenders be limited do not constitute 50%.”

Not only that, but this “straw poll” is not provided for under State Party bylaws, and while the County Chairs screening the candidates may have been constructive, it has no formal or legal weight in the ultimate selection of the Party’s nominee.

Two Chairman confirmed that account of events with Big League Politics, stating that they, and others they have spoken to had not been consulted about any sort of vote occurring beforehand, and were shocked to see the vote reported as fact in Politico just days later.

The entire scheme was reportedly spearheaded by Fulton County GOP Chair Sue McNeil, who has a history of using dubious tactics to achieve her ends, recently being successfully sued for violating state election law when disqualifying a candidate challenging her Chairman seat.

One Republican County Chair was particularly dumbfounded at their attempt to dismiss the candidacy of Constantino and Pinion, stating:

“The idea that this group of Chairs would dismiss Anthony [Constantino], when he has already deposited $2.6 million of his own money into his campaign; or Pinion, who was just on Fox [News] the other day, and who has a ton of name ID from his run against Schumer, is just absurd.” 

Constantino’s campaign fired back at the actions of these rogue County Chairs, telling Big League Politics that they are prepared to take legal action if State Party by-laws are not followed in this process.

“The selection process to choose a nominee must conform to the State Party by-laws, or a lawsuit from candidates not considered is a virtual certainty.” said Constatino’s acting campaign manager Lenny Roudik. “This seat is not vacant and probably won’t be until April. Why are we eliminating strong candidates like Anthony? What’s the rush?”

According to reports, Constantino has donated $5,000 to every Republican County Committee in the 21st District, which he has stated is for nothing more than to “help Republicans win more races,” and that he expects nothing in return.

While New York’s 21st district is decidedly Republican leaning, it was held by a Democrat as recently as 2015 and New York State Republicans have traditionally done a poor job of turning out their members during summer special election elections. With a paper-thin Republican majority in the House, Republicans cannot risk losing this seat.

It is unclear if President Trump will make any endorsements in this race before a nominee is chosen, but his endorsement would hold enough weight to virtually guarantee a swift nomination to whoever he chooses.

An unnamed spokesman for President Trump speaking to Big League Politics has confirmed that he has not selected a candidate in this race, but noted that Trump had previously praised Constantino for courageously refusing to remove the ‘Vote for Trump’ sign atop his building at threat of jailtime.

The same spokesman also stated that Stefanik has expressed no preference in her replacement, and thus far has remained neutral.

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