The Democratic Primary for New York's 21st Congressional District, scheduled for June 23, pits St. Lawrence County farmer Blake Gendebien against Lake Placid restaurant owner Stuart Amoriell.
We sent each of them — and their Republican counterparts — 10 questions to get an idea of why they're running to represent the North Country, how they plan to tackle major issues, and how they'd engage with constituents across a sprawling rural district. Below are their responses.
Why are you running for Congress?
STUART AMORIELL: I'm running as an "Independent Democrat" because I believe America's strength comes from dialogue and shared values rather than the demonization that dominates today's politics, and that no single party has all the answers. I'm focused on a comprehensive roadmap to rebuild the quality of life in the North Country, tackling the affordability crisis through universal healthcare, affordable housing, stronger local economies, fair tax policy in which the wealthy and corporations pay their fair share, and a healthier cross-border relationship with Canada.
I believe Congress has abdicated its constitutional responsibility to check executive overreach, and I'm committed to restoring the power of the purse, oversight, and accountability that the framers placed first in the Constitution for a reason. Above all, I'm running on the conviction that hope is not passive, that progress requires showing up, listening with humility, and engaging with neighbors honestly rather than watering down my convictions to chase votes.
BLAKE GENDEBIEN: I’m running for Congress because Washington has forgotten about the North Country. My job on day one is simple: work with anyone—Democrat or Republican—to lower costs, secure the border, protect rural healthcare, and actually deliver results for working families instead of playing partisan games.
I’ve spent my life working in this community—as a dairy farmer, small business owner, school board member, coach, and advocate for families battling pediatric cancer. I know what it’s like to struggle with rising costs, deal with burdensome regulations, and worry about keeping a business afloat.
Meanwhile, politicians in Washington spend more time fighting each other and chasing power than helping the people they represent. They’ve forgotten rural communities like ours.
I know what it’s like to farm on the border with a broken immigration system. I know what it’s like to lose local hospitals and drive hours for healthcare. I know what it’s like to watch family farms disappear while D.C. can’t even pass a Farm Bill.
The North Country deserves someone who lives this life, understands these challenges firsthand, and will fight every day for our farmers, workers, veterans, and families.
What do you like about living in this district? Why do you want to represent these residents?
GENDEBIEN: I love the North Country because this is home. These are my neighbors, my community, and the people who helped shape who I am. I’m a husband, father of three boys, second-generation dairy farmer, and small business owner from Lisbon, N.Y.
My wife, Carmen, and I built our farm here 20 years ago, raised our family here, and dedicated our lives to serving this community—whether that’s through farming, coaching basketball, serving on the school board, or helping children through our Jules of Life Foundation. The people here are hardworking, resilient, and always willing to help their neighbors. That’s what makes the North Country special.
I’m not running to become another politician. I’m running to be a fighter for the people who live here—the farmers, workers, veterans, small business owners, and families who feel like Washington stopped listening to them a long time ago. I am the North Country. I understand the challenges because I live them every day. And I’ll never forget who I work for.
AMORIELL: What I love about the North Country is easier to feel than to explain. It's the light falling on the High Peaks from my backyard at the end of a winter day. It's the serenity of a paddle down the Raquette River. It's grabbing ice cream at Donnelly’s on a hot summer day, the pancake breakfasts, the volunteer fire departments, and the way neighbors still wave from their pickup trucks. It's a corner of America that hasn't forgotten what America was supposed to feel like.
But the beauty of this district isn't only in its landscape, it's in its people. Life here is not always easy. Our winters are long, our wages too often haven't kept pace with the cost of living, our hospitals are stretched thin, and too many of our young people feel they have no choice but to leave. And yet the people of Northern New York meet those challenges with a resilience that humbles me every day. We don't wait on Washington up here. We never have. We take care of each other.
What are the top issues you see for your constituents?
AMORIELL: The quality of life for Northern New York residents has declined over the decades. To reverse this, we must ensure our neighbors have affordable housing and can afford their utilities and gas; that healthcare is both affordable and accessible; that young families have access to universal childcare; that healthy food is affordable and within reach for everyone in our communities; that we honor our commitment to aging neighbors by protecting Medicare and Social Security and fully funding the services and caregiver support that allow them to age at home, should they choose; and that we rebuild our relationship with Canada, recognizing its importance to our border economies.
GENDEBIEN: My job on day one is simple: work with anyone—Democrat or Republican—to lower costs, secure the border, and protect rural healthcare. As a dairy farmer, I see firsthand how rising costs are crushing families across the North Country. The uncertainty around tariffs is already driving up the cost of farming— the cost of fertilizer, transportation, and equipment have all increased—and all of that eventually turns into higher grocery bills for working families.
At the same time, rural healthcare is failing our communities. Families are driving hours for care, hospitals are struggling to stay open, and too many politicians in Washington don’t understand what rural life actually looks like. And if Washington is serious about securing the border and fixing immigration, farmers need a seat at the table. I live this every day. I know how broken the system is, and I understand the need for a reliable legal workforce—not just for agriculture, but for hospitality, construction, and forestry across the North Country.
We need less political theater and more people in Washington who actually understand how these decisions affect working families in the real world.
What policies would you support at the federal level to expand access to and affordability of childcare in the North Country?
GENDEBIEN: Childcare is too expensive. Families shouldn’t have to sit down and do the math on whether it’s cheaper to quit their job and stay home or pay for childcare.
Across communities like ours, parents are paying as much as $2,000 a month for childcare—and in many rural areas, there aren’t enough providers at all. That’s unsustainable for working families.
We need real investments in early childhood education and childcare access. That includes supporting public-private partnerships that help businesses provide childcare options for employees, expanding employer childcare assistance programs, and increasing investments in public education and early childhood education programs.
If we want to support working families and grow our economy, we have to make childcare more affordable and accessible. Families in the North Country deserve better.
AMORIELL: The North Country's problem is supply, not just demand: the vast majority of the North Country is a "childcare desert" with at least three kids under 5 competing for every slot, and meeting the region’s needs would require more than $200 million annually versus the roughly $30 million currently being invested.
The most impactful federal move would be providing grants and funding to build and renovate facilities in low-density areas, something current block grant rules largely prohibit. Federal workforce investments matter just as much: federal wage supplements, tuition loan forgiveness for rural workers, and SUNY apprenticeship funding would help address the staffing shortage that has forced even Head Start programs in the region to shutter classrooms because they can't find workers. Childcare block grant funding also needs a substantial increase.
St. Lawrence, Clinton, Essex, Warren, and Herkimer counties have all run out of childcare assistance funding, so eligible North Country families can't access subsidies that exist on paper. Without supply-side federal action, universal childcare in the North Country will remain a policy that works only in Washington and Albany press releases.
What policies would you support at the federal level to encourage development of new housing stock and improvements to existing stock?
AMORIELL: We have a desperate need to increase the housing supply. First, I would support efforts to remove corporate STR (short-term rental) investment money from the single-family home market. Second, we need to promote duplex, triplex, and quadplex developments while expanding manufactured housing as an affordable option.
Third, we should support first-time homebuyers through down payment tax credits and reduced mortgage insurance rates as equity builds. Fourth, we need to work with representatives from similar districts across the country to pass legislation expanding rehabilitation grants that modernize aging housing and bolster local community efforts, like what we've seen right here in Lake Placid with Fawn Valley.
GENDEBIEN: Housing has become unaffordable for too many working families, and it shouldn’t be this hard to buy a home, rent an apartment, or make repairs to the home you already have.
The reality is we simply are not building enough housing to meet demand—especially in rural communities and small towns. That drives up prices for everyone. We need to cut red tape, speed up permitting, and make it easier to build more housing of all kinds so working families, young people, and seniors can actually afford to live in the communities they call home.
At the federal level, I would support investments that help expand housing supply, including incentives for affordable housing development, programs that help first-time homebuyers, and funding to rehabilitate and modernize existing housing stock in rural communities.
We also need to expand workforce housing and invest in infrastructure so communities can actually support new development. Too often, projects get tied up for years in bureaucracy while families struggle with rising rents and housing costs.
At the end of the day, housing is an affordability issue. If we want to lower costs for working families, we have to build more housing, modernize aging housing stock, and make it easier—not harder—to get projects off the ground.
It’s no secret that the region’s dairy industry relies heavily on undocumented workers who milk the cows. How would you propose finding a legal workforce for dairy farmers? What would you do about the workers who are here now?
GENDEBIEN: Nobody understands how broken our immigration system is better than farmers. My wife, Carmen, and I have run our dairy farm three miles from the border for more than 20 years, and we’ve seen firsthand how badly Washington has failed both our farmers and our workers.
The reality is our economy depends on a stable workforce—not just in agriculture, but in hospitality, construction, forestry, and other industries across the North Country. Right now, we have a system that is chaotic, inconsistent, and unfair to everyone involved.
We need real, common-sense immigration reform that secures the border, deports violent criminals, and streamlines a legal process for people who want to come here, work hard, and contribute to our economy.
That starts with policies like the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, which would help create a reliable legal workforce for agriculture and give farmers certainty instead of constant instability.
We also need to make sure our border crossings actually have the staffing and resources they need. In our district, some ports of entry can’t even stay open past 6 p.m., which hurts trade, tourism, and local businesses that depend on cross-border commerce.
This issue is too important for political theater. Farmers, workers, and rural communities need practical solutions—and I’ll work with anyone, Republican or Democrat, to finally get meaningful immigration reform done.
AMORIELL: We can all agree there is no place in this country for criminals seeking to take advantage of our system, but these are not the people being targeted by the current administration. I personally know multiple hardworking members of our Lake Placid community who have been deported despite holding legal residency and work authorization.
The lack of due process we are witnessing is completely unacceptable and must be stopped immediately. To genuinely address the current immigration crisis, we need to establish a legal pathway to citizenship for the hardworking people already contributing to our communities, and we must expand visa access so our farms can remain fully staffed through legal channels.
NY-21 is a sprawling rural district, covering all or part of 15 counties. How do you plan to engage constituents in person?
AMORIELL: Unlike Elise Stefanik, I will spend my in-district time visiting our communities and neighbors. I'll open local community offices where constituents can drop in to share their concerns with my team and me. I'll hold in-person town halls across the district, and I'll continue hosting online town halls, as I do now, to stay accessible to every constituent.
GENDEBIEN: I’ve already held more than 125 public events across the North Country, including town halls, meet-and-greets, community events, and press conferences—because I believe showing up matters.
One of my favorite parts of this campaign has been meeting neighbors across the North Country, listening to their concerns, and hearing directly about the challenges they’re facing. That’s how you build trust and actually understand what communities need.
I plan to continue holding town halls and public events across the North Country because people deserve a representative who is accessible and willing to have real conversations. The only way to truly represent the North Country is to get out, meet people where they are, and listen.
If elected, you’ll be new to Congress. How do you plan to work with current leadership and New York’s congressional delegation to accomplish your goals?
GENDEBIEN: I’m going to Washington to be a voice and a fighter for the North Country—not to play political games.
I already have strong relationships with members of New York’s congressional delegation, and I’m willing to work with anyone—Democrat or Republican—if it means delivering results for our communities.
People in the North Country don’t care about partisan drama in Washington. They care about lowering costs, protecting rural healthcare, supporting farmers and small businesses, and making sure our communities aren’t forgotten.
That’s going to be my focus every single day. I’ll work with anyone who’s serious about getting the job done for the people back home.
AMORIELL: Coming into Congress as a freshman, I know seniority matters, but what matters more is the willingness to build relationships and find common ground, and that work can begin on day one. My approach is grounded in a belief I've written about: no single party or ideology owns the manual for solving the complex problems facing our country, and I will work with anyone, Democrat, Republican, or Independent, who is serious about delivering for their constituents.
Within New York's delegation, I'll engage every member, regardless of party, on the issues that affect our state as a whole: the cost of living, housing, healthcare access, our relationship with Canada, and the future of upstate and rural New York.
Beyond New York, the honest truth is that the struggles of the North Country are shared by rural districts across the country; a family in Massena faces many of the same affordability pressures as a family in West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, or the upper Midwest, and on issues like rural healthcare, affordable housing, broadband, and workforce development, I will sit down with any colleague whose constituents share the same struggles as ours.
If elected, you’ll succeed Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, who has held the seat for more than a decade. Is there anything about the way she represented NY-21 that you plan to do the same way? Anything you plan to do differently?
AMORIELL: First, I will make myself available to everyone in the district. When is the last time Stefanik appeared in our district? She is too busy pursuing her own personal ambitions—her failed bids for U.N. ambassador and governor, and now her book tour—to show up for the people she was elected to serve.
Second, I will not play the game of partisan politics. Elise was elected as a moderate Republican, but she has drifted farther and farther to the right, again in service of her own advancement. That is not my purpose. My purpose is to represent the great people of Northern New York and improve the quality of life for everyone in our district. The person I am on Election Day is the representative our district will have, year after year.
GENDEBIEN: I’m not interested in partisan politics or political theater. Washington dysfunction is crushing working families, and people are tired of politicians spending more time fighting each other than solving problems.
My focus will be on working with anyone—Democrat or Republican—to lower costs, secure the border, protect rural healthcare, and deliver real results for the North Country.
At the end of the day, I’m a farmer and small business owner. I approach problems by figuring out how to get the job done, and that’s exactly how I’ll serve in Congress.
Why should Democratic primary voters select you for the general election?
GENDEBIEN: I’m not a politician—I’m a farmer, a small business owner, and a fighter for the North Country. I’m someone who knows how to bring people together and get things done.
When we’re farming and one of my neighbors gets stuck in the mud, I don’t ask whether they’re a Democrat or Republican. I bring my tractor, hook up a chain, and help pull them out because that’s what neighbors do. That’s the attitude I’ll bring to Washington.
People are tired of political games and dysfunction. They want someone who understands their lives, listens to them, and fights for them every single day.
I’ll work with anyone to lower costs, protect rural healthcare, support our farmers and small businesses, and make sure the North Country finally has a strong voice in Congress.
AMORIELL: As an Independent Democrat, a Lake Placid small business owner, and a husband and father raising two young kids in the North Country, I bring lived experience to the issues straining our families: rising housing costs, difficulty accessing reliable and affordable healthcare, and the economic obstacles pushing too many young people to leave the region.
My campaign isn't built on slogans; it's a comprehensive Roadmap to Improving Quality of Life in the North Country, with universalhealthcare, affordable housing, stronger local economies, a fairer tax code, and a better relationship with Canada, a strategy grounded in the realities of rural life.
I believe strong communities are built through conversation, not division, and there is far more that unites us as Americans than divides us, and that's exactly the message that wins general elections in NY-21, where voters are exhausted by partisan demonization. Nominating me means putting forward a Democrat who can reach working families, independents, and disillusioned Republicans without compromising on the priorities that actually improve people's lives.