{"id":859747,"date":"2026-06-11T11:31:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T11:31:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/859747\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T11:31:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T11:31:14","slug":"smullen-says-political-career-and-republican-support-can-win-him-ny-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/859747\/","title":{"rendered":"Smullen says political career and Republican support can win him NY-21"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jun 11, 2026 \u2014 <\/p>\n

Pat BradleySmullen says political career and Republican support can win him NY-21\"NYS<\/a><\/p>\n

NYS Assemblyman Robert Smullen, campaigning in Canton for NY-21. Photo: David Sommerstein<\/p>\n

On a recent sunny, spring morning, members of the Clinton County Republican Party gathered at the Rainbow Banquet Hall in Altona to meet some high-profile state candidates, including 21st Congressional District hopeful Assemblyman Robert Smullen.<\/p>\n

Anthony Constantino and Smullen have been trading barbs in a vicious primary campaign. The Clinton County GOP has endorsed Smullen, and folks attending this meet-and-greet reinforced that support. Morrisonville resident Ed Kirby said he \u201c100%\u201d supports Smullen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve worked with him before, and he\u2019s just a great guy, all around solid,” said Kirby, “and I think he stands for the values that we look for,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Brandon Wallburg from Plattsburgh shared a similar sentiment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI am here to support Robert Smullen. He\u2019s an individual that I respect. Our committee has endorsed Robert Smullen, and we stand by that,\u201d Wallburg said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Smullen has been endorsed by the state Republican Party and 12 of the 15 county GOP committees across the 21st District. Constantino has been endorsed by President Donald Trump. As he introduced Smullen to the crowd in Altona, Clinton County Republican Committee 1st Vice Chair Jeff Luck said that was a mistake.<\/p>\n

\u201cAssemblyman Robert Smullen understands leadership at the highest level. And I think everybody here knows that our President Trump clearly got it wrong,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Assemblyman<\/a><\/p>\n

Assemblyman Robert Smullen represents all of Hamilton County, as well as parts of Herkimer, Fulton, Montgomery, and Oneida counties. Photo: Assemblyman Robert Smullen<\/p>\n

Smullen is outgoing and gregarious as he meets Republican voters. The current 118th Assembly District representative sat down in a side room to tell WAMC just who he is.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m actually from Meco, which is just outside of the city of Gloversville in Fulton County. That\u2019s where I was born and raised,\u201d he said. \u201cOur family, we were brick masons. We had a hunting camp in the Adirondacks, which we still have today.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always wanted to go into the military, so I graduated from Gloversville High School in 1986, and I went to the Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina, a military college, and I took Naval ROTC, and that\u2019s how I got into the Marine Corps. And altogether I did four deployments, 24 years in the Marine Corps and three combat tours to Afghanistan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smullen traveled the world during his military career and has been to 78 countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cUpstate New York is a great place to be from. It\u2019s a great place to live, to work, to raise a family and I think that\u2019s how I got into politics,\u201d Smullen said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I got out of the Marine Corps in 2015, I had bought a farm. And then when the incumbent in the 118th Assembly District decided to retire, I ran for that office, and I was reelected three times unopposed in the 118th Assembly District.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Assemblyman<\/a><\/p>\n

Assemblyman Robert Smullen addresses supporters and staff in Johnstown as he announces his campaign for Congress in November. Photo: Aaron Shellow-Lavine, WAMC<\/p>\n

Smullen is a distinguished graduate of the National Defense University Eisenhower School and holds a master\u2019s from Georgetown University. He served in the first Trump administration as a member of the Commission on White House Fellowships.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, he is setting his sights on Congress.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m from here. I\u2019ve led Marines in combat. I have worked at the Pentagon. I was a White House Fellow. All of those experiences, all of the issues of the day, I\u2019ve been on the front lines of those, and I\u2019ve worked very effectively in the state legislature representing the people already. So I know what to do, and I can be effective from day one,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

If elected to represent New York\u2019s 21st District, Smullen said his first priorities would focus on Trump administration policies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first priorities are to make sure that the Trump agenda that’s being implemented right now in many areas of New York state, that that would continue, Smullen said. \u201cAnd a lot of that has to do with energy. At the federal level, we can bring energy policies into New York that will then help us become more competitive.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have big issues with our businesses of being competitive because of things like energy costs, insurance costs, the cost of doing business in New York state. So, we need to fix those, and I can actually work on those at the federal level.\u201d<\/p>\n

When WAMC asked if Smullen would push back on or oppose any of the president\u2019s policies, he said, \u201cWell, I\u2019ll certainly be in favor of the policies that the people of this district want and need.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

New York\u2019s primary is Tuesday, June 23, and early voting runs from June 13 to June 21.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jun 11, 2026 \u2014 Pat BradleySmullen says political career and Republican support can win him NY-21 NYS Assemblyman…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":859748,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,301971,405,403,5226,5225,5228,290394,5227,80,252854,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-859747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-election2026","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-ny21","tag-nyc","tag-politics","tag-robert-smullen","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116731254695304497","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=859747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/859748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=859747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=859747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=859747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}