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 (S.D. 33) in 2010, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14) in 2018, along with former State Sen. Alessandria Biaggi (S.D. 34) the same year, former Congressman Jamaal Bowman (NY-16) in 2020, and City Councilwoman Pierina Sanchez (C.D. 14) in 2021.

 

In the Northwest Bronx, the Working Families Party and others are aiming to wrestle away a State assembly seat that, as reported, has not changed hands in over 30 years from incumbent Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz (A.D. 81), 71, who first won the seat in a special election in 1994 and who formally launched his reelection campaign in February.

 

Last year’s historic election of Democratic Socialist NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani has propelled the Democratic progressive movement in the City to new heights, 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.

However, that progressive momentum has faced limits in A.D. 81. The Bronx, overall, flipped to Mamdani in the 2025 general election (51.5% to Cuomo’s 40%). However, centrist Democratic pockets of A.D. 81 resisted the tide, with voters in Riverdale and Kingsbridge turning out in high numbers to back Cuomo’s independent mayoral bid over Mamdani’s Democratic Socialist platform. Though Mamdani ultimately secured an overperformance across the broader A.D. 81, his lukewarm showing in some of the high-turnout, moderate strongholds in the district is an indication that a deeper progressive shift may not be a given.

 

That being said, the potential ideological shift in Northwest Bronx politics is emblematic of broader friction inside Bronx Democratic politics, with several progressive Democratic candidates challenging their more centrist incumbent counterparts. The A.D. 81 race, in particular, has become a proxy battle over the future of Democratic politics, at a time when some Bronx representatives in the State assembly are receiving unprecedented campaign donations from tech behemoths like Airbnb and Uber, as reported by New York Focus.

 

Progressive critics point to such donations as evidence of corporate influence over Democratic politics and a drift away from working-class priorities. All that being said, it is not the assemblyman’s first time at the rodeo, and the seasoned politician has seen off other challengers over his 30+ year career, as reported.

 

Though the largely centrist Bronx Democratic Party eventually gave their backing to Mamdani in last year’s general election (after he won the primary), the assemblyman and his son, Councilman Eric Dinowitz (C.D. 11), whose council district heavily overlaps with A.D. 81, did not attend the endorsement event at Lou Gehring Plaza. Both politicians had shared their concerns with Norwood News about Mamdani’s candidacy last year, in part due to some of his comments in relation to the Israel Gaza war.

Meanwhile, Bowman did not disagree that his stance on the Israel Gaza war played a role in his 2024 congressional loss to now Congressman George Latimer in NY-16, which covers parts of The Bronx and Westchester Counties. According to Justice Democrats, “AIPAC built a massive war chest to turn Jamaal Bowman’s 2024 primary into the most expensive House primary ever at the time.” Fellow progressive Biaggi decided not to run for reelection for her Senate seat in 2022, launching a congressional bid instead in NY-17. She was ultimately defeated in the primary for the latter.

 

Since then, the City’s 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, 42, a teacher and disability activist who, as reported, launched her assembly campaign last year, can put an end to what they see as legacy centrist Democratic politics in the Northwest Bronx stronghold.

 

Both Dinowitz and Evers are Jewish and a large contingent of A.D. 81’s voting population are also Jewish. Dinowitz has a long-term ally in the form of the Ben Franklin Reform Democratic Club (BFRDC), a long-time institutional force in grassroots organizing and a Democratic endorsement facilitator for largely centrist Democratic candidates in A.D. 81. Club members voted to endorse Andrew Cuomo for mayor in last year’s Democratic primary.

 

The club is not without controversy. In the past, BRFDC has backed members of the bizarrely named Independent Democratic Conference, 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.

As reported, while the assemblyman is also running on a campaign centered on 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, his efforts have resulted in varying degrees of success.

 

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 in 2022.

 

As reported, the Working Families Party endorsed Evers in March, backing her progressive platform, and describing her as a “bold new leader” in the affordability crisis. To get Evers on the ballot, she said volunteers knocked on nearly 15,000 doors.

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.

 

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, of Dominican heritage, when she ran as State committeewoman in A.D. 81 in 2024, and won. Her campaign was also not without controversy, stemming from discretionary funding her Female Fight Club received from the councilman for her North Riverdale-based gym.

 

In addition, Councilman Dinowitz also won his seat in a special election in 2021, amid prevailing allegations 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 by challengers during the City Council election in 2021.

A.D. 81 encompasses Kingsbridge, Fieldston, Riverdale, Spuyten Duyvil, Van Cortlandt Village, and parts of Norwood, Kingsbridge Heights, Bedford Park, Wakefield and Woodlawn. During the assemblyman’s 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 “Norwood.”

 

While details of the exact shooting were not referenced, the most recent shooting, before the Feb. 8 event, had actually taken place in Bedford Park on Jan. 29, not in 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.

 

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.D. 78 represented by Assemblyman George Alvarez, and A.D. 86 represented by Assembly Member Yudelka Tapia. The result; the dilution of the collective voting power of the community district as a whole.

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 efforts to improve the neighborhood, it is one that is long plagued by rental repair issues, quality-of-life complaints, and other problems like poor mental health, gun violence and stabbings.

 

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 during the nurses strike earlier this year, as did Rivera. The latter is chair of the State Senate health committee, whose senate district also overlaps with A.D. 81 and who has backed Evers. The Tenants PAC has also endorsed Dinowitz.

 

Evers has also been endorsed by another incumbent State senator whose senatorial district also overlaps with A.D. 81., 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, the third senator whose senatorial district overlaps with A.D. 81, has endorsed Dinowitz.

Meanwhile, G. Oliver Koppell, former New York Attorney General, who also represented A.D. 81 for 24 years until Dinowitz was elected to the seat in 1993, also backs Evers. Koppell said in part of the race that “new voices with the ethics that these times demand, and which are sorely lacking in this district,” were needed. As reported, Evers has also been endorsed by the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club.

 

If elected, as reported, Evers would become the first blind woman to serve in the State assembly. Although it’s her first campaign for the assembly, she previously served as a Democratic State committee representative for A.D. 81. In 2022, as reported, 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 Board of Elections has stringent rules to get on the ballot.

 

Her campaign says experiences like that reflect the kind of gatekeeping politics she wants to challenge. “You should be able to feel like you can enlist and interact and engage your State representatives for help when you need it,” Evers’ 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.

 

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’s office was unresponsive, even cancelling a meeting after she had paid for a taxi to his office. “Whenever they want to do a presser, and that includes [Congressman] Richie Torres [NY-15] too, they go running over to Riverdale,” she told Norwood News. “And I don’t see them running around here unless they want to do, like, a little PR thing with like, ‘Oh here, I have a backpack for school.’ That’s about it,” Goodman-Clarke added.

Meanwhile, supporters of Dinowitz say his decades in office have given him the relationships and institutional knowledge needed to deliver for the district. “Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz is proud of his record of delivering for the North Bronx, with real results in every community that are unmatched,” Matt Rey, a campaign spokesperson said.

 

Rey went on to cite 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 legislative wins, including historic tenant protections, the eviction moratorium, a major middle-class tax cut, and expanded immigrant protections.

 

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’s vacant storefronts at Knolls Crescent retail plaza in Spuyten Duyvil, a once-bustling, walkable shopping hub where the shuttering of key anchors like Chase Bank and Rite Aid have left a dilapidated, empty strip behind local senior co-ops.

 

The co-op boards organized meetings to address the vacancies. Evers attended the first one 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.

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, “You’re a 32-year incumbent. What have you been doing?”

 

The leader of the “Save Knolls Crescent” 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, Save Knolls Crescent group remains unable to locate another landlord on the strip, managed by ABC Realty, whose properties have been vacant for many years.

 

Norwood has experienced a similar impasse in connecting with the owner of a commercial lot on Bainbridge Avenue and East 204th Street following a devastating commercial fire in 2023, destroying several small businesses along one block. The block in question is located just south of the southern border for A.D. 81, and falls within A.D. 80, represented by Assemblyman John Zaccaro Jr.

Early voting is underway and continues through Sunday, June 21, until 5 p.m. Election Day is Tuesday, June 23. Learn more here.