Blake Gendebien Is Running As a Moderate. His Record Tells a Different Story.

Democrat Blake Gendebien is running for Congress in New York's 21st District, and he's taken a leaf from Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger's playbook: run as a "moderate" and hide his support for extreme policies from voters.

In reality, Gendebien is running to stop President Trump's agenda, including impeaching Trump and his Cabinet. He also has ties to the same consultants who helped Zohran Mamdani in New York and Graham Platner in Maine and hired people who support full-blown communism and want to abolish capitalism.

While he champions socialism, Gendebien is another wealthy Democrat. His financial disclosures put his net worth somewhere between $8 million and $22 million. In 2020, he donated to Tedra Cobb, a member of the Working Families Party, when Cobb ran against Elise Stefanik. The Working Families Party is a third political party that runs candidates as Democrats in states like New York. But they're not Democrats. In fact, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) called the Working Families Party "the closest thing there is to a political party that believes in my vision of democratic socialism."

He also hired a communist, Ximena Nieves, who wrote a piece calling to "eradicate capitalism" that was titled "The Unholy Trinity: Racism, Capitalism and Mass Incarceration." Nieves argues that slavery was never truly abolished, called all police and prison guards racist, and wrote that "many of the factors contributing to the high incarceration rates of Black and brown communities, including overpolicing [sic], police biases, wrongful convictions, etc., function for the benefit of the prison industrial complex."

Gendebien's opponent, Republican Anthony Constantino, reported in July that Gendebien employs Spruce Street Compliance, which served as treasurer and financial gatekeeper for Mamdani's mayoral campaign last year. According to the New York Post, Mamdani's mayoral bid took in $13,000 in illegal foreign donations from more than 170 contributions that originated outside the U.S.

Victoria Perrone, president of Spruce Street Compliance, also worked as an operative for Mamdani's primary campaign and stayed on to work as Mamdani's Transition Committee Treasurer. Anthony SanFilippo, another Spruce Street Operative, said he "played an integral part" in Mamdani's win.

Politico also reported that Gendebien paid Grassroots Analytics more than $300,000 for list acquisition, direct mail, and texting services. Graham Platner used that same firm during his failed campaign for the U.S. Senate seat in Maine. Spruce Street Compliance also worked with the Platner campaign.

But voters in NY-21 should know that Gendebien is running to stop President Trump's agenda.

"We need to pump the brakes on this administration's really strange policies, and that is why I'm running," he said.

In another audio clip, Gendebien said he's open to impeaching Sec. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other members of the administration, including President Trump.

"So I clearly support vaccinations. I do not support RFK Jr.'s policies," he said. "People have asked me, do I want to impeach Kristi Noem? Do I want to impeach RFK Jr.? Do I want to impeach Donald Trump? I want to be the most effective legislator that I can be to do good things for the residents in the United States, and New York's 21st District. The only thing I worry about is a campaign of retribution over a campaign of support and effective legislation. So if — if — I'm going to do things that are in support of effective legislation, I want to hold people accountable for mistakes and incompetence, but not at the expense of getting things —of being an effective legislator. So we'll see what happens. I am laser focused on what's right."

This is especially relevant in light of a recent poll showing that Democrats would support a coup or even an assassination attempt to remove President Trump from office. The Democrats want to undermine the will of voters by opposing their choice for president and even trying to remove President Trump from office.

We polled five routes for Trump to leave office before the end of his term. A plurality of Dems support four of them, including a military coup and death by natural causes. The only one underwater, an assassination, is still supported by 29%. pic.twitter.com/C3qb2H0R8j

— Center for Strategic Politics (@StratPolitics) September 21, 2026

NY-21 voted overwhelmingly for President Trump in 2024, with Trump getting 60 percent of the vote. President Trump won the district by similar margins in 2016 and 2020, too. And that's why Gendebien is trying to hide his true views from voters. He knows President Trump is supported in that district, and that his anti-Trump policies won't play well with them.

Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.

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