[Amsterdam, N.Y.] The CEO of Sticker Mule, whose electric “Vote for Trump” sign dominates the skyline here, told RedState he is hosting an Election Night watch party for Republicans and Democrats for 5,000 people with TV monitors, food, drinks, music, and fireworks.m
“We spent over a hundred thousand dollars on audio and video equipment,” said Anthony Constantino, whose sticker and label company, based here, has 1,200 employees.
“We’re going to have TVs all over the place, and there’ll be a massive movie screen in front of the sign,” Constantino said.
The CEO said people are flying from California, and he has a friend from the Dominican Republic who might fly in.
There will be five music acts, including two country bands, but Constantino said he is most excited about a singer, Kamaya Forrester, whom he discovered in a club in New York City.
“She stole the show,” he said.
“Everybody was like: ‘Whoa, what the heck was it?’ It was unbelievable. I never seen anything like it,” he said.
“She is from Portland, Jamaica,” he said. “I heard her and thought: ‘That’s the singer I want.’”
Related: Huge ‘Vote for Trump’ Sign Lights Up in Upstate NY Despite Local Officials’ Efforts to Shut It Down
Despite the large Trump sign, Constantino said everyone is welcome.
“We got a tent for the Republicans, a tent for the Democrats. I’m pulling it a party for both sides. I’m saying it’s something I think hasn’t been done. There’s a party for both sides,” he said.
The watch party is free and open to the public, he said.
“We’re going to have free food from an incredible local pizzeria called Lorenzo’s that makes authentic Italian-style pizza. We’re going to have free McDonald’s. We’re working on an alcohol license to have champagne for everybody,” he said.
Constantino: NYC cab driver told me only the fanatics are for the Left
Constantino said he feels like Trump and Republicans have the momentum this cycle.
“I do think there’s going to be a red wave in the country overall,” he said.
“I talked to a cab driver in New York City the other day, and he said it very well. I speak Spanish, so my cab driver didn’t even speak English,” the Sticker Mule CEO said.
“He’s from Ecuador. I was talking to him in Spanish, and he said: ‘Only the fanatics are on the Left now, only the fanatics.’ He said: ‘All the reasonable people have moved to support Trump.’”
The Amsterdam native said New York is trending red.
“I think there’s a Red Wave,” he said. “I think it’d be really good for New York if Republicans start winning again because Republicans are scared to live here, so if we start seeing a little bit of Republican improvement in New York, you’re going to see a lot of people coming to live in New York.”
The story behind the ‘Vote for Trump’ sign
The giant “Vote for Trump” sign is more than 100 feet long, and each letter is more than 12 feet high, beaming out from the roof of the Sticker Mule building.
Beyond the Amsterdam skyline, the sign is seen by more than 1,000,000 drivers on the New York Thruway—30 miles west of Albany and 110 miles east of Syracuse.
In an X-Post, Constantino said the Trump sign is more than a political statement because it is also an homage to the “FOWNES” sign that stood for decades in the same spot on the factory Fownes built in 1903 when it moved to the upstate New York from England.
Fownes, founded in 1777, was a producer of fine hats, gloves, and scarves for department stores. It shut down its facilities here and moved its manufacturing to Red China, but the weather-beaten sign remained on the roof.
“The FOWNES company completely shut down operations in Amsterdam, New York, in 1984, when I was 2 years old, and moved everything overseas, decimating my home city,” Constantino said.
“The people left little by little and a once vibrant city became a depressed town, throughout my life the FOWNES sign defined my hometown’s skyline,” he said.
“I never expected to own the iconic FOWNES building, but my own company, Sticker Mule, grew so quickly we ended up buying almost every functional manufacturing building in Amsterdam,” the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute graduate said. “
“For the last few years, we debated what to do with the FOWNES sign, given everything happening in the world today,” he said.
“We decided to replace it with an equally iconic and symbolic sign that represents the return of manufacturing jobs to America and the triumph of the underdog against insurmountable adversity.”
