FTA Administrator Marc Molinaro is openly exploring a run for Rep. Elise Stefanik’s soon-to-be vacated House seat in upstate New York, The Post has learned.
Molinaro — a former Dutchess County executive and ex-congressman from New York’s 19th Congressional District — has been calling county chairs in recent weeks to gauge the viability of his candidacy.
State Conservative Party Chair Gerard Kassar confirmed that Molinaro had reached out to him about possibly entering the race for New York’s 21st Congressional District, and whether the right-leaning party would cross-endorse him.
“Marc asked me to be open to a potential candidacy,” Kassar said Wednesday.
Molinaro currently serves in President Trump’s administration as Federal Transit Administration boss. He had no immediate comment.
Stefanik recently announced she would not seek re-election next year, leaving the North Country seat up for grabs.
Assemblyman Robert Smullen, who was endorsed by the Franklin County Republican Party on Tuesday, is another contender Conservatives would consider, Kassar said.
Anthony Constantino, owner of Sticker Mule, a printing and packaging supply company, is also vying for the Republican nomination to succeed Stefanik.
Molinaro’s potential entry into the race was already raising serious political, ideological and residency questions among local Republicans, sources said.
Molinaro does not have strong ties to the district itself, an expansive area that runs through 15 counties and borders Vermont and Canada — and may be accused early on of being a carpetbagger.
His career was focused in Dutchess County, where he served as mayor of Tivoli, a member of the Dutchess County Legislature, county executive, and later as a congressman representing the Hudson Valley and parts of upstate.
He also was the Republican candidate for governor in 2018.
Molinaro lost his House re-election bid to Democratic Rep. Josh Riley in 2024, a rematch from two years earlier.
Beyond his residency, GOP sources claimed Molinaro’s record was too liberal for Republican primary voters in the conservative-leaning district.
He has publicly identified as pro-choice, expressed support for the Black Lives Matter movement, spoken to protesters about his white privilege and has openly acknowledged that he did not vote for Trump in 2016, a source said.
While some references to these positions have recently been removed from his YouTube channel, they remain well documented and widely known among party activists, a GOP insider said.
One Republican source characterized Molinaro as “a liberal, pro-choice, pro-BLM failed politician who didn’t even vote for Donald Trump in 2016 and is now a DC elitist trying to parachute into a district he has no connection to.”
“Marc is asking for the president’s support,” a Republican insider said.
