Ben Franklin Club endorses Dinowitz and Torres

Rep. Ritchie Torres has served as a congressman since 2021, and represented Riverdale since 2023 after redistricting.

Gary Jean-Juste

The Ben Franklin Reform Democratic Club, a political organization embedded in the community since 1960, endorsed several candidates for reelection ahead of June’s Democratic primaries.

The group announced it was backing Assemblymember Jeffrey Dinowitz, Rep. Ritchie Torres, Rep. Adriano Espaillat and state Sen. Jamaal Bailey on Jan. 23 — standing with incumbents as opposed to some of their more progressive challengers.

Petitioning for signatures needed to get candidates on the ballot will begin on Feb. 24, a process that the club said traditionally results in the greatest number of signees for Bronx candidates.

A week and a half before endorsements were announced, the club held a private Zoom meeting in which candidates were given five minutes each to make their case and answer questions from members.

Dinowitz, who is being challenged by educator and activist Morgan Evers, emerged with the greatest number of votes. According to the club, 97 percent of members leaned in his favor.

The assemblymember has held the seat since 1994, and recounted how Vietnam War protests and picketlines urging the passage of the Civil Rights Act shaped his political views.

“For all of the years since then, what I’ve done is I’ve worked in our neighborhoods,” he said. “I never had the ambition to run for mayor or Congress, I wanted to stay in my community.”

Dinowitz said despite the amount of time he’s served, he feels more “energized than ever,” later adding “the club has always been my strongest base of support.”

The next most popular candidate was Torres, with 96 percent of the votes. The congressman has been in office since 2021, and represented Riverdale since 2023 after redistricting.

“I’m proud to be a friend of the club,” Torres said, before listing a slate of accomplishments. He pushed back against City Hall in 2023 when it proposed a 34,000-seat cricket stadium in Van Cortlandt Park, and again the same year when the city attempted to move about 250,000 public sector retirees off of traditional Medicare plans.

He also referred to $880 billion secured in reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for COVID-19 expenses to NYC Health + Hospitals, a system with five Bronx locations, as well as an investigation of his that alleged Con Edison was overcharging borough residents compared to National Grid.

Torres then spoke to antisemitism, reflecting on when he visited Salanter Akiba Riverdale High School after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, and vowed to stand with constituents.

“I will have opponents who are going to run a relentlessly negative campaign,” he said. “I’m going to run on a different campaign … because in the end I’m here to represent one Bronx. We’re not Black or white, Latino or Asian, we’re not Jewish, Christian or Muslim. We are one Bronx.”

One member asked Torres to what extent President Donald Trump has authority to withhold federal funding. The congressman responded it was a violation of the Constitution, adding “We’re going to take Donald Trump to court, and we’re going to win.”

Three of Torres’ challengers — Bronx Assemblymember Amanda Septimo, public defense attorney Dalourny Nemorin and former Assemblymember Michael Blake — were also in attendance. A few days later, however, Septimo announced she was dropping from the race after a lupus diagnosis.

Blake said his campaign centers on what can be done to help the community in an impactful way. His focus continues to be on the need for higher wages, lower costs, support for nurses during the ongoing union strikes and the abolishment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE. He highlighted prior experience in Washington, DC, as a staffer under former President Barack Obama, and as former vice chair of the Democratic National Committee.

“There has to be a deeper and a more transformational way we are moving forward within what’s happening in DC to provide opportunities for the district,” he said. “We do believe we deserve more, deserve change and deserve greater opportunities in a more significant way.”

Two members questioned Blake on whether he believes the city should divest from holdings in Israel, which he said he could not give a blanket answer to.

Nemorin told the club she aims to improve housing, healthcare and immigration, and that she draws on her background as a first-generation Haitian American. She also noted her work at the Legal Aid Society and as a South Bronx community board member, and in 2024 she was selected to join the Obama Foundation Leaders program.

“The fabric of the [15th Congressional District] is built on migrant communities,” she said. “We need to make sure people who are already in the country, in our city, are able to feel free to work, make money and contribute to the city like they always have done, safely and without fear.”

An attendee asked how being a member of the Democratic Socialists of America would impact Nemorin's potential work as a congresswoman. She said for her, being a Democratic socialist means ensuring tax dollars are used to protect others, such as with Medicaid and food stamps.

Espaillat garnered 86 percent of the votes, with 12 percent of members in favor of Darializa Avila Chevalier, an activist and public defense investigator.