Congressional candidate Anthony Constantino says it’s all about job creation

Anthony Constantino has been grabbing attention in his run for retiring Rep. Elise Stefanik’s seat – a sprawling district covering much of Northern New York. The CEO of printing company Sticker Mule won the Republican primary and is facing off against Democrat Blake Gendebien in the general election.

Constantino spoke with City & State’s Jeff Coltin, in partnership with AARP New York, about his positions impacting older New Yorkers including Medicare, civic engagement and affordability. You can read our interview with Gendebien here. This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

What do you think is the top issue for voters over 50 in New York this year?

I want to start out by saying, I'm the son of a Naval veteran. My father actually served at the Bikini Island atomic bomb test. And so if he was alive today, he'd be over 100 years old. He had me late in life, when he was in his 60s. And his concern was creating jobs for people. And I think that's the concern to this day. My concern is creating jobs. We need jobs for people in upstate New York. People are leaving because there's not jobs here. Two million lifelong New Yorkers have left, and they're taking their prosperity with (them). They were the people that are making us prosperous. They were our friends. They were our families. There are people who've lost their children that have moved to other states. We want to make New York prosperous again by creating jobs so people can stay here and we can all keep families together. 

Congress and the Trump administration are trying to reduce Medicare and Medicaid spending, hoping for savings on the federal level, and enacting a work requirement and ending subsidies for states like New York. What would you do in Congress to protect Medicare and Medicaid?

I'm the strongest person to advocate for New York of anyone running for this seat. I'm a friend of the president. We're both New Yorkers. We both want to help New York. Even though we have a different person in charge of New York City, President Trump still loves New York City. He loves New York state. I know that his kids come up here as well. And so I'm in a position to work with the president to deliver with regards to Medicaid. 

But as I understand, the president's looking at waste and fraud with regards to illegal immigrants using Medicaid. New York has let in over 800,000 illegal immigrants that are using up all sorts of resources, and we want to take close look at that and protect everybody from taxpayer dollars going to illegal immigration.

The president does get along with the mayor. You want to be the Zohran Mamdani of the North Country?

Well, I think it's good that I have a strong relationship with the president because when you're friends with somebody, it's easier to ask for things than when you're not friends. So the president called me a friend on stage in Syracuse. We've gotten to know each other well, and I think I'm most positioned to be able to talk to him and get things done for everybody in New York. And I think we should all remember, President Trump is a New Yorker with strong ties both to downstate and upstate. He loves our state. I love our state. And I want to help make it more prosperous. 

Social Security is a program that voters expect will support them in the future, and Congress has a lot of tools to fix it. If elected, how would you work to protect Social Security for New Yorkers, for New Yorkers' children and our grandchildren?

I will protect Social Security. In fact, I'm the only person running that already agreed to co-sponsor (Tennessee Rep.) Tim Burchett’s law to guarantee Social Security. You can take a look. I'm proud to say that I'm gonna be co-sponsoring that law once I'm in Congress with Congressman Burchett.

Nearly 4 million New Yorkers care for a family member or another loved one, working an average of 27 hours a week just on caregiving, and spending an average of more than $7,000 a year out of their own pockets. How would you help family caregivers here in New York save money and time so that they can continue caring for their loved ones?

Two things I want to do. One is I'm proposing day one legislation, Operation Overhaul, which is an upgrade of all government software systems, so people can get access to things quicker. The other thing I'm proposing is an expansion of remote medicine, so that people that need care can get them by just making a phone call. It’s burdensome to have to leave your house to go get care. In fact, my mother is in her 70s now, and she had a very difficult situation a few years ago. She was slowing down. She couldn't speak as well. She couldn't get around as well. And I made an emergency phone call to a doctor who looked at her records and over the phone told me that she had a brain tumor that needed immediate emergency service. So thanks to remote care, I was able to save my mom's life. We rushed to the hospital. The brain tumor was removed. Her speech returned. Her mobility returned. She started going to the gym, and at age 76, she's a fitness enthusiast. She seems like she's 45. And so I want to give that same service to everybody in NY-21. 

Glad remote healthcare worked out there. The average Con Edison utility bill was up to $220 last year, from $157 in 2020. According to an AARP survey, 84% of New Yorkers over the age of 50 said their spending has increased. How are you addressing the high cost of utility bills and how would you help New Yorkers who are struggling?

Yeah, it's horrible. New York state has the second worst utility costs in the country, just behind California. And if you know, those are two states that are dominated by Democrat ideology. So we need to start embracing more Republican way of thinking in New York state. We need to drill, baby, drill. Support the president's energy agenda. Tap our natural gas. We should look at a temporary suspension of the gas tax, given the current situation. And I think the way to reduce utility prices is to give Republicans a chance to implement good ideas. Democrat ideology leads to very high utility prices, which is terrible for our seniors. 

Are there nuclear power plants in your district? Would you support more nuclear?

I think nuclear is interesting. Everything needs to be looked at on a case-by-case basis. I'm not opposed to anything. I think we should look at nuclear. But I think there's a lot of other things we can look at too. We have natural gas here. We can do more drilling in the United States of America. We just freed the Venezuelan people. I offered to go over to Venezuela personally. I speak Spanish. I'd like to help accelerate their exports, which will reduce energy costs long term for everybody in all the Americas, reduce our dependence on Middle East oil, which keeps us safe and is an overall great thing for the world. And so there's a lot of levers to reduce energy costs. I think the Democrats like high energy prices because they want to drive Republicans out of New York state. They see 2 million people have left New York state, and those are Republican voters by and large, and they like when people leave.

Adults 60 and older across the country have lost nearly $300 million to elder fraud just in the last year. Scammers are using new technology like AI and cryptocurrency for new schemes. How would you help protect older New Yorkers from fraud and scams?

Yeah, we have to get tough on this. And it is on my radar. My mom's in her 70s. She's a very sharp person, but you know. I love our seniors. I talk to a lot of people. My co-founder of my company is in his 80s. And I know people that run into this issue. People try to do horrible things to people, and we have to be tough. We shouldn't be letting people defraud our seniors. We have to look at the situation with legal immigration coming in. There's a problem there at times. People commit crimes trying to defraud our seniors. We also have situations where overseas people try to defraud our citizens, from foreign countries, and we have to use every tool that we can find to protect our seniors from fraud. 

What do you think is the biggest opportunity to increase voter registration and civic participation in our state?

Can I say two things? One, we have to make it feel like New York state is a state where both parties can thrive. It feels like it's a one-party state, and I think if people feel like it's a state where both parties are welcome and it's a battle of ideas, you'll get more civic participation.

The other thing is Operation Overhaul. My day one legislation is for upgrading all systems, including the system for how you register to vote. I'm in the business of registering people to vote, now that I'm running for Congress, and I can tell you we could upgrade that system and make it way easier for people to do something as basic as register to vote. It would probably take a day or two to upgrade that website and make it very easy. We should get that done. 

Anything else that you think that voters should know about you?

With regards to seniors, I was raised by a father who had me late in life. He'd be over 100 years old if he was alive today. My mother's 76, but she’s a very youthful 76. I've donated my own personal money to help our seniors, help our senior centers. I hope to get lucky and become a senior one day too. So I have a lot of love for people that are over – I'm almost going to be 50 myself. So you know, I have a lot of love for all people, and I want to get lucky and become a senior. And I want to treat our seniors the way they deserve to be treated, and do everything I can to help them.