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<\/a>(LEFT) ASSEMBLYMAN JEFFREY Dinowitz (A.D. 81) and (right) teacher, disability activist and candidate for assembly in A.D. 81, Morgan EversPhoto of Jeffrey Dinowitz courtesy of the the assemblyman and photo of Morgan Evers courtesy of Morgan Evers for NY<\/p>\n
Local voters are no doubt aware of a growing progressive Democratic movement in the Northwest Bronx, and in The Bronx generally, as in much of New York City over the past several years. Past notable wins have included State Sen. Gustavo Rivera<\/a> (S.D. 33) in 2010, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez<\/a> (NY-14) in 2018, along with former State Sen. Alessandria Biaggi<\/a> (S.D. 34) the same year, former Congressman Jamaal Bowman<\/a> (NY-16) in 2020, and City Councilwoman Pierina Sanchez<\/a>\u00a0(C.D. 14) in 2021.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n In the Northwest Bronx, the Working Families Party, and others, are aiming to wrestle away a state assembly seat that, as reported<\/a>, has not changed hands in over 30 years from incumbent Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz<\/a> (A.D. 81), 71, who first won the seat in a special election in 1994 and who, as reported, formally launched<\/a> his reelection campaign in February.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Last year\u2019s historic election<\/a> of Democratic Socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has propelled the Democratic progressive movement in New York City to new heights<\/a>, and is being read by allies as a sign of growing traction for the Working Families Party-aligned progressive wing in New York City politics.<\/p>\n However, that progressive momentum has faced limits<\/a> in the 81st Assembly District. While The Bronx, overall, flipped to Mamdani in the general election (51.5% to Cuomo\u2019s 40%), centrist Democratic pockets of the 81st District resisted the tide. Voters in Riverdale and Kingsbridge turned out in high numbers to back Cuomo\u2019s independent bid over Mamdani\u2019s Democratic Socialist platform. Though Mamdani ultimately secured an overperformance across the broader district, his lukewarm showing in some of the high-turnout, moderate strongholds is an indication that a deeper progressive shift may not be a given.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The potential ideological shift in Northwest Bronx politics is emblematic of broader friction inside Bronx Democratic politics, with several progressive candidates also challenging<\/a> their more centrist incumbent counterparts. The A.D. 81 race, in particular, has become a proxy battle over the future of Democratic politics, at the same time as some Bronx representatives in the State assembly receive unprecedented amounts of campaign donations from tech behemoths like Airbnb and Uber, as reported<\/a>\u00a0by New York Focus.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Progressive critics point to the donations as evidence of corporate influence over Democratic politics, and a drift away from working-class priorities. It is not the assemblyman\u2019s first time at the rodeo, however, and the seasoned politician has seen off other challengers<\/a> over his 30+ year career, as reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Though the largely centrist Bronx Democratic Party eventually gave their backing<\/a> to Mamdani in last year\u2019s general election (after he won the primary<\/a>), the assemblyman and his son, Councilman Eric Dinowitz<\/a> (C.D. 11), whose council district heavily overlaps with A.D. 81, did not attend the endorsement event for Mamdani at Lou Gehring Plaza. Both politicians had shared their concerns with Norwood News over Mamdani\u2019s candidacy last year, in part due to some of his comments in relation to the Israel Gaza war.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Bowman did not disagree<\/a> that his stance on the Israel Gaza war played a role<\/a> in his 2024 congressional loss<\/a> to now Congressman George Latimer in NY-16, which covers The Bronx and Westchester Counties. According to Justice Democrats, \u201cAIPAC built a massive war chest to turn Jamaal Bowman\u2019s 2024 primary into the most expensive House primary ever at the time.\u201d Fellow progressive, Biaggi decided not to run for reelection<\/a> for her Senate seat in 2022, launching<\/a> a congressional run instead in NY-17. She was ultimately defeated<\/a> in the latter primary race.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Since then, the City\u2019s progressive movement has been fueled by, among other groups, the New York Working Family Party, and advocates are optimistic that in the upcoming June 23rd primary in the Northwest Bronx, their candidate, Morgan Evers<\/a>, 42, a teacher and disability activist who, as reported<\/a>, launched her assembly campaign last year, can put an end to what they see as legacy centrist Democratic politics in the Northwest Bronx stronghold.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Both Dinowitz and Evers are Jewish and a large contingent of A.D. 81\u2019s voting population are also Jewish. Dinowitz has a long-term ally in the form of the Ben Franklin Reform Democratic Club (BFRDC)<\/a>, a club<\/a> not without<\/a>\u00a0controversy<\/a>. A long-time institutional force in grassroots organizing and the assembly district\u2019s Democratic endorsement process of largely centrist candidates, club members voted to endorse<\/a>\u00a0Andrew Cuomo<\/a>\u00a0for mayor in last year\u2019s Democratic primary.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n In the past, BRFDC has backed<\/a> members of the bizarrely named \u201cIndependent Democratic Conference<\/a>,\u201d a now disbanded group of State Democrats who frequently voted with a then Republican-led majority in Albany, halting the passage of much progressive legislation as they did so.<\/p>\n As reported<\/a>, while the assemblyman is also running<\/a> on a campaign centered around affordability, immigration, and housing, among other topics, including disability rights, and while he has taken steps in recent years to advance progressive legislation pertaining to, for example, climate, voting rights, healthcare, and justice for sexual assault survivors<\/a>, his efforts have resulted in varying degrees of success.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Meanwhile, his historical links with BFRDC have not been forgotten by many. Evers, on the other hand, was among those to break away from BFRDC to form a new Northwest Bronx Unity Democratic Club<\/a> in 2022.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n As reported<\/a>, the Working Families Party endorsed Evers in March, backing her progressive<\/a> platform, and describing her as a \u201cbold new leader\u201d in the affordability crisis. To get Evers on the ballot, she said volunteers knocked on nearly 15,000 doors.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Campaign financing is clearly a factor in the race and according to Ballotpedia, during the latest election cycle, since Jan. 1, 2025, Evers has received $228,086 in campaign contributions from 577 contributors, while the assemblyman has received $589,458 from 431 contributors.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, seemingly in efforts to reach a growing, largely Kingsbridge-based, Hispanic voter base, the assemblyman and his allies have given their backing in recent years to Johanna Edmondson<\/a>, of Dominican heritage, when she ran as State committeewoman<\/a> in A.D. 81 in 2024, and won. Her campaign was also not without controversy<\/a>, stemming from discretionary funding her Female Fight Club received from the councilman for her North Riverdale-based gym.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n In addition, Councilman Dinowitz also won his seat<\/a> in a special election in 2021, amid prevailing allegations<\/a> of favoritism at the time, and with many feeling it gave too much political power to one family. Some felt it also concentrated too much power in the more affluent parts of both the assembly and the council district, such as in leafy, suburban Riverdale, where much of their support lies, at the expense of other working class neighborhoods like Norwood and Wakefield. It was an argument also raised<\/a> by challengers during the City Council election in 2021.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n A.D. 81 encompasses Kingsbridge, Riverdale, Spuyten Duyvil, Van Cortlandt Village, and parts of Norwood, Kingsbridge Heights, Bedford Park, Wakefield and Woodlawn. During the assemblyman\u2019s reelection campaign launch, seemingly in efforts to show empathy for some of the more crime-ridden neighborhoods within A.D. 81, a reference was made during a speech by one of his surrogates to a recent shooting that had occurred in \u201cNorwood.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n While the exact shooting was not referenced, the most recent shooting (before the Feb. 8 event) had actually taken place in Bedford Park<\/a> on Jan. 29, not Norwood, a reference which appeared to demonstrate a lack of knowledge of the geographic make-up of A.D. 81 by the Dinowitz candidate slate.<\/p>\n Local Bronx Community District 7, which covers the neighborhoods of Norwood, Bedford Park, University Heights, Fordham, and Kingsbridge Heights is, frustratingly, some would say, split across several assembly districts: A.D. 81 represented by Dinowitz, A.D. 80 represented by Assemblyman John Zaccaro Jr<\/a>., A.D. 78 represented by Assemblyman George Alvarez<\/a>, and A.D. 86 represented by Assembly Member Yudelka Tapia<\/a>. The result; the dilution of the collective voting power of the community district as a whole.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Only one part of Norwood, including the Williamsbridge Oval park, parts of East Gun Hill Road, and Montefiore Medical Center, for example, falls into A.D. 81, and while the assemblyman has funded<\/a> efforts to improve the neighborhood, it is one that is long plagued by rental repair issues<\/a>, quality-of-life complaints<\/a>, and other problems<\/a>\u00a0like poor mental health<\/a>, gun violence<\/a> and stabbings<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n In terms of endorsements, while Evers has the support of the Working Families Party, Dinowitz has the backing of many labor unions, including the NYS AFL-CIO, the Civil Service Employees Association, and the New York State Nurses Association, with whom he rallied<\/a> during the nurses strike earlier this year, as did Rivera,<\/a> chair of the State Senate health committee, whose senate district overlaps with A.D. 81, and who has backed<\/a>\u00a0Evers.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Evers is also endorsed<\/a> by another incumbent State Senator whose senate district overlaps with the 81st assembly district, Robert Jackson (S.D. 31). Both Jackson and Rivera are also endorsed by the Working Families Party. State Sen. Jamaal Bailey (S.D. 36), chair of the Bronx Democratic Party<\/a>, whose senate district also overlaps with A.D. 81, endorsed Dinowitz.<\/p>\n Additionally, G. Oliver Koppell, former New York State Attorney General, who also represented A.D. 81 for 24 years until Dinowitz was elected to the seat in 1993, also backs Evers, saying in part \u201cnew voices with the ethics that these times demand, and which are sorely lacking in this district,\u201d were needed. As reported<\/a>, Evers has also been endorsed by the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n If elected, as reported<\/a>, Evers would become the first blind woman to serve in the New York State Assembly. Although it\u2019s her first campaign for the Assembly, she previously served<\/a> on the Democratic State Committee. In 2022, as reported<\/a>, she was removed from the ballot while seeking reelection to that post because of a paperwork error. Evers said at the time that, because of her disability, she relied on campaign staff to assist with handwritten filing requirements. New York City has stringent rules to get on the ballot.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Her campaign says experiences like that reflect the kind of gatekeeping politics she wants to challenge. \u201cYou should be able to feel like you can enlist and interact and engage your State representatives for help when you need it,\u201d Evers\u2019 campaign spokesperson Jin Whang said. As a candidate living with a disability, Evers frames accessibility as a core pillar of her campaign, shaping both her policy priorities and her approach to constituent engagement.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n For her part, Norwood resident, Janet Goodman-Clarke, 55, said after struggling with a landlord on a list of worst evictors buying up a majority of co-ops in her building, Dinowitz\u2019s office was unresponsive, even cancelling a meeting after she had paid for a taxi to his office. \u201cWhenever they want to do a presser, and that includes Richie Torres too, they go running over to Riverdale,\u201d she told Norwood News. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t see them running around here unless they want to do like a little PR thing with like \u2018Oh here, I have a backpack<\/a>\u00a0for school.\u2019 That\u2019s about it,\u201d Goodman-Clarke added.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, supporters of Dinowitz say his decades in office have given him the relationships and institutional knowledge needed to deliver for the district. \u201cAssemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz is proud of his record of delivering for the North Bronx, with real results in every community that are unmatched,\u201d said campaign spokesperson Matt Rey.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Rey cited funding for restorative justice, youth programming, college access, and drug prevention at local community centers, as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars in school improvements and millions invested in Van Cortlandt Village housing complexes. He also pointed to progressive wins, including historic tenant protections, the eviction moratorium, a major middle-class tax cut, and expanded immigrant protections.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n But up the hill, even in affluent Riverdale, Dinowitz has begun to face skepticism from some longtime residents. For some, a breaking point came amid frustration over the neighborhood\u2019s vacant storefronts<\/a>\u00a0at Knolls Crescent retail plaza, a once-bustling walkable shopping hub where the shuttering of key anchors like Chase Bank and Rite Aid left a dilapidated, empty strip behind local senior co-ops.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The co-op boards organized a meeting to address the vacancies. Evers attended the first meeting to hear their concerns. Dinowitz attended the second meeting, with the city council member, and encouraged residents to continue pressuring lawmakers to support legislation he sponsored that would create a tax penalty for persistently vacant retail properties.<\/p>\n Speaking to Norwood News about the issue, Knolls Crescent resident Lisa Amowitz, 67, who attended the meeting and who campaigns for Evers, said of Dinowitz, \u201cYou\u2019re a 32-year incumbent. What have you been doing?\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The leader of the \u201cSave Knolls Crescent\u201d group, Karen Kawaguchi, said the group will not formally endorse a candidate in the A.D. 81 primary, but added that she appreciated the attendance of both candidates at their meetings. She added that Dinowitz has been responsive and helped to arrange a Zoom meeting between their group and one of the Knolls Crescent landlords to discuss solutions. However, the group, Save Knolls Crescent, remains unable to locate the landlord in the strip, managed by ABC Realty, whose properties have been vacant for many years.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Norwood has experienced a similar impasse<\/a> in connecting with the owners of a commercial lot on Bainbridge Avenue and East 204th Street following a devastating commercial fire<\/a> in 2023, which obliterated several small businesses along one block.<\/p>\n<\/a>ASSEMBLYMAN JEFFREY DINOWITZ (A.D. 81) talks to an attendee at a Juneteenth event held on the grounds of Van Cortlandt Park House Museum in the Fieldston section of The Bronx on Friday, June 19, 2026.\u00a0
Photo by S\u00edle Moloney<\/p>\n<\/a>MORGAN EVERS, TEACHER, disability activist, and candidate for New York State Assembly in A.D. 81 talks to residents of the Woodlawn section of The Bronx in June 2026.\u00a0
Photo courtesy of Morgan Evers for NY<\/p>\n<\/a>AN OVERVIEW OF Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz\u2019s campaign financing for the election cycle starting Jan. 1, 2025.\u00a0\u00a0
Source: Ballotpedia<\/p>\n<\/a>AN OVERVIEW OF Morgan Evers\u2019 campaign financing for the election cycle starting Jan. 1, 2025.\u00a0\u00a0
Source: Ballotpedia<\/p>\n<\/a>MEMBERS OF THE Bronx Democratic Party hold a press conference on Sept. 2, 2025 on Lou Gehrig Plaza in the Concourse section of The Bronx to formally endorse then Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani (A.D. 36) of Queens, also present at the event, for mayor of New York City.
Photo by S\u00edle Moloney<\/p>\n<\/a>STATE ASSEMBLY DISTRICT 81 includes the Bronx neighborhoods of Kingsbridge, Riverdale, Spuyten Duyvil, Van Cortlandt Village, and parts of Norwood, Wakefield and Woodlawn.
Source: CUNY Graduate Center Redistricting and You tool<\/p>\n<\/a>STATE ASSEMBLY DISTRICT 31 includes the much of Northern Manhattan and Harlem as well as some or all of the West Bronx neighborhoods of University Heights, Kingsbridge Heights, Fordham Manor, Van Cortlandt Village, and Morris Heights.\u00a0
Source: CUNY Graduate Center Redistricting and You tool<\/p>\n<\/a>STATE SENATORIAL DISTRICT 33, represented by State Sen. Gustavo Rivera (S.D. 33) includes some or all of the Bronx neighborhoods of Norwood, Bedford Park, Kingsbridge, Riverdale, Fieldston, Spuyten Duyvil, Fordham Manor, Fordham Heights, Belmont, Tremont, Van Nest, Little Yemen, Allerton, Pelham Parkway and Morris Park, and Mt. Hope.\u00a0
Source: CUNY Graduate Center Redistricting and You tool<\/p>\n<\/a>EARLY VOTING TIMES and days ahead of primary day, June 23, 2026.\u00a0
Source: NYC Votes<\/p>\n