Morgan Evers launches primary challenge against longtime Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz
The basement of Connaughton’s Steak House was packed shoulder to shoulder as teacher, disability advocate and community activist Morgan Evers formally launched her campaign this week to unseat Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, setting up a June 2026 Democratic primary against a lawmaker who has held the 81st Assembly District seat since 1994.
Her campaign reported raising more than $26,000 from over 200 donors at the launch, qualifying her for the maximum in public matching funds and hinting at an unusually competitive race ahead of June 2026.
Evers opened her remarks with a sweeping critique of long-standing political leadership and a call for generational change.
“I am humbled by the overwhelming response I have received across this district since I explored a run this summer,” she said. “It’s clear the people in the Northwest Bronx are ready for change. While dangerous policies from Washington threaten New Yorkers every day, the 81st Assembly District has an entrenched politician who is more focused on building a political dynasty into a third decade of status quo governance rather than assuring us we have a trusted fighter who will protect us."
Evers is not new to political life. She previously served as a New York State Committee member for the district from 2022 to 2024, later helping to found the Unity Democratic Club with progressives who broke from the Benjamin Franklin Reform Democratic Club.
She pointed to a series of longstanding local issues — rising maintenance costs in cooperative housing, limited access to affordable childcare, and widening gaps between wages and basic expenses — that she said have intensified, particularly in neighborhoods where working families have struggled to maintain stable footing.
“I enter this race with a clear vision for a people-centered campaign focused on the neglected needs of working families and the local economy in this fast-changing district,” she added.
Her campaign has emphasized the precarious future of the Amalgamated Houses, the nation’s first limited-equity cooperative, as emblematic of broader pressures across the district.
Evers, who uses a mobility cane due to a degenerative retinal disease diagnosed in her thirties, wove her personal experience into a broader critique of federal policy. Disability advocates have raised alarms over the U.S. Department of Justice’s removal of nearly a dozen Americans with Disabilities Act guidance documents and the possibility of weakened enforcement of Section 504, which guarantees equal access for disabled students and families in federally funded programs.
Her campaign said she is preparing state legislative proposals aimed at protecting disabled New Yorkers should federal guarantees erode. Her remarks on the subject were a common thread through the event.
“Though my eyesight is vanishing, my vision for a better Bronx is not,” she said. “Now more than ever, we need bold leadership fighting on the front lines for New York during unprecedented attacks to our basic rights by a fascist federal government. We are done with establishment politicians guarding incumbency over the needs of constituents who are being targeted.”
Her launch also touched on anxieties surrounding federal immigration enforcement activity, which residents in multiple Bronx neighborhoods have described in recent weeks.
“Masked and armed men in unmarked cars are terrorizing our neighbors and any perceived foreigners in our own community,” she said. “They’re kidnapping people and in some cases, assaulting them. Our Jewish values tell us not to stand idly by.”
Before Evers addressed the room, speakers framed her candidacy as an effort to rebuild local political culture. Ellen Chapnick, former dean for Social Justice Initiatives at Columbia Law School, underscored what she described as a rare moment of collective organizing.
“I wish you all had the view that I have,” she said, standing in front of a crowd of supporters. “This is an amazing room to be in. The Bronx machine will spread misinformation, but saying public servant and politician in the same sentence is not an oxymoron.”
Community organizer Brent Schneider said the turnout was less a reflection of political novelty than of longtime trust.
“I know it would not be packed this way if Morgan the person wasn’t every bit as inspirational as Morgan the candidate.”
District Leader Abigail Martin, who previously ran in the overlapping council district, drew a clear contrast between Evers and the incumbent’s decades in elected office.
“Morgan is running against one of the most powerful and entrenched members of the assembly in the entirety of New York State. Spite — that’s what we saw on the MELT Act. Our community deserves a leader who doesn’t let personal feelings get in the way of governing and protecting the people who need them most.”
The last significant primary challenge Dinowitz faced came in 2022, when Jessica Altagracia Woolford ran a campaign backed by organizations including the Working Families Party and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
