\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRobert Smullen, Photo Courtesy Robert Smullen.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Despite remaining on the Conservative Party line for the November election following his Congressional primary loss to Anthony Constantino, Assemblyman Robert Smullen has decided to abandon \u2202the race altogether.\u00a0<\/p>\n
News of the decision allegedly followed an Oval Office meeting with President Donald Trump, clearing the way for an uncontested race between Constantino and Lisbon Democrat Blake Gendebien.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI am deeply honored to have met with President Trump and grateful for our discussions. I am confident in President Trump\u2019s vision for this country and am energized about keeping NY-21 in Republican hands and finding an alternative path to continue public service myself,” Smullen said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Smullen lost the primary bid on June 23 by nearly 20 points after being outspent by a nearly 10 to one margin.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said he will continue to serve his constituents in the 118th Assembly District.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Following the announcement, Gendebien said he was confident voters would select a candidate who will fight for NY-21, not a \u201cwannabe DC insider.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNow that Robert Smullen is out of the race, voters across Upstate New York and the North Country have a clear choice this November \u2013 a wannabe DC insider Anthony Constantino who fired nearly 70 workers, replaced them with robots, and then bragged about it. Blake is a dairy farmer who will keep fighting to lower costs, protect rural health care, secure the border, and stand up for the people who make Upstate New York and the North Country work,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The former Marine Corps colonel was previously undecided on staying in the race, with some calling for him to remain on the ticket despite the heavy loss.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That scenario has now been rendered null and void, with the party falling in line with Trump and Constantino, despite 12 of 15 party chairs originally endorsing Smullen.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite that level of support, Constantino received Trump’s endorsement and that of his allies, including Rudy Giuliani and Roger Stone.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Both appeared in ads with Constantino shortly after he threw his hat in the ring.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Following his victory, 13 of 15 county GOP chairs have endorsed Constantino publicly, along with\u00a0 North Country Assemblyman Ken Blankenbush.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For his part, Constantino thanked Smullen for his service to the nation after announcing his withdrawal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It was a hard fought campaign that sharpened my skills and taught me a lot. I thank you for all your effort in this campaign and ongoing service to our nation. We created tremendous interest and made people excited to be Republicans,” Constantino said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Robert Smullen, Photo Courtesy Robert Smullen. Despite remaining on the Conservative Party line for the November election following…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":918428,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[83346,44055,83353,5229,83354,72155,83355,19302,83345,46491,83344,405,403,5226,5225,65065,5228,5227,83343,83342,83351,39011,83352,83356,83358,83357,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,83349,83350,83348,83347],"class_list":["post-918427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-adirondack-foothills","tag-adirondacks","tag-alcoa","tag-america","tag-arconic","tag-canton","tag-clarkson-university","tag-fishing","tag-gouverneur","tag-hunting","tag-massena","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-north-country","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-ogdensburg","tag-potsdam","tag-snowmobiling","tag-st-lawrence-county","tag-st-lawrence-seaway","tag-st-lawrence-university","tag-suny-canton","tag-suny-potsdam","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-village-of-canton","tag-village-of-massena","tag-village-of-norwood","tag-village-of-potsdam"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918427","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=918427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/918428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=918427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=918427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=918427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}