Interviews & Profiles
Dianne Morales has been named the new leader of El Puente
The former 2021 New York City mayoral candidate talks about that race, how it ended and her next chapter.

Dianne Morales is taking over as the new executive director of El Puente, a human rights organization based in Brooklyn. Dimitri Rodriguez
Just four years ago, Dianne Morales was a rising star on the left as she surprised many political onlookers with the strength of her first-time run for office. The New York City Democratic mayoral primary attracted a crowded field of candidates, including several progressives, but Morales had seemed to emerge as a favorite among left-wing groups, including the Working Families Party. There was even speculation that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez would throw her support behind Morales.
That all unraveled quickly when work unrest among her campaign staff bubbled to the surface, leading to resignations, protests and unionization efforts. Morales fired other campaign workers, stirring up accusations of union busting. She lost the backing of key progressive groups like the WFP, and Ocasio-Cortez opted not to endorse her.
She wrote in July 2022 op-ed for City & State: “The story of a first-time candidate’s campaign – particularly that of a Black woman challenging the status quo – seeming to implode nearly overnight was easy to latch on to, though. … And they were willing to overlook any nuance or critical examination in its telling.”
Now, she’s back with a new position, ready to take over as the executive director of El Puente, a Brooklyn-based community organization that has been a significant presence in New York City’s Latino communities for decades. And Morales said she is only looking forward as she starts this new chapter. She discussed her new role, the current race for New York City mayor and her 2021 campaign in an exclusive interview with City & State. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
How did you come to your new role at El Puente, and what is your vision for the organization?
The process was a long one. This moment in time, just in general, I think feels like a call to action. I felt compelled to think about what I could do and how I could play my part in this moment. But even more specifically, I think El Puente is a really natural step for me. My roots are in Brooklyn and Puerto Rico. I have a long history of working to support community voice and leadership, and El Puente has a model of grassroots leadership, rooted in the sort of cultural history of Puerto Rican resistance. And it really just feels there’s a little bit about this that feels kind of like a homecoming. In terms of my vision for the organization, I think there is a really amazing and powerful foundation and legacy at El Puente. I want to continue to build upon that and to strengthen that, and get it sort of in the kind of position where it can really be at the forefront of the movement with training and supporting young people and community leaders to really push for and advocate for the things that they believe are right for themselves and their communities.
What have you been up to the past few years?
I founded my own firm called StillRising, and I really spent the bulk of the last couple of years doing a couple of things that sort of feed right into this moment in time and this work. One was the creation of a program to train and support Black and brown leaders of community organizations to help them strengthen their ability as leaders to both do the work and to care for themselves as they do the work. Also, I’ve been doing some work with this initiative that I started in 2017 called Diaspora Despierta, which basically came out of post-Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, and focused on me bringing financial resources to groups and communities that really didn’t have that infrastructure and that were working on rebuilding in the way that they felt was the right way for their community.
There’s a very stark difference between what’s happening at the federal level and locally here in the New York City mayoral race. How has the latter impacted your decision, and what are your thoughts about the future of the city?
I think what I see happening in the mayoral race right now is something that is very hopeful. This is definitely something that I believed in four or five years ago. I think that communities can create the future that they want and can push for that and resist these sort of systemic, structural things that tell us that things have to be otherwise, because we know that those things have not worked for Black and brown communities. So it’s a really inspiring thing to me to see communities coming together and rejecting the status quo and rejecting the established rules, if you will, of who gets a seat at the table. And I think that doing this work at El Puente is a great opportunity to strengthen the fabric of that resistance and be a part of that.
Where do you see your 2021 run for mayor impacting what we’re seeing now in this year’s race and the surprise victory of Zohran Mamdani in the Democratic primary? Do you think you laid some of that groundwork?
I definitely think that leadership is about evolving. It’s about learning, it’s about building from the things that worked and doing it from a stronger position. Of course I’d like to think that there are things, there are lessons learned, from the campaign that has influenced Zohran being where he is right now. But for me, right now, I’m really focused on bringing everything that I’ve learned and everything that I’ve done to El Puente and bringing that to bear on El Puente’s current status and its future.
What are some of the difficulties you anticipate facing? There is obviously fear regarding ICE raids, but we also saw rightward shifts among Latino communities in the city in the 2024 presidential election. How are you going to reach those communities since I imagine you wouldn’t consider voting for Trump constructive engagement?
Yes, you got that right. The Latino community is not a monolith, so I think even starting from the premise about that sort of generalization about the Latino community shifting in that way, I don’t think it's totally fair. But certainly I feel like part of the work that El Puente will do is to work with the community around community education, around identifying what their priorities are, around identifying what they feel is the best pathway to get there and really training around leadership and organizing.
Looking back on your 2021 mayoral campaign, what would you say you learned from that experience, and how do you think you will integrate that into your organizing?
I’ve actually been teaching. And part of what I teach about, the focus is leadership. But I talk about these moments in leadership that are rife with these values tensions essentially, and making decisions in the moment that might align with you personally, but might be interpreted differently externally. One, for me, is about, at this stage in my career, a combination of trusting my gut and my instincts, but also making sure that I am crystal clear about the channels of communication – that that is happening in a way that is transparent on both sides, and that it is reaching everyone who is being impacted. Tough decisions have to be made all the time, and what I’ve learned is that when people understand what went into making those tough decisions, they are much more likely to be able to accept them, even if they don’t actually like them.
Do you have any concern that your history will impact your ability to effectively organize?
I’m not concerned about that. We’re talking about 30 days of a challenging campaign, as opposed to 30 years of a successful career leading this work and doing this work in the community. At the end of the day, the folks that are doing this work on a daily basis know who I am and recognize what I’ve done.
Do you see yourself running for office again?
No, I don’t see myself running for office. One of the things I said throughout that campaign that I think was hard for people to believe, was that it was a one and done proposition. It was something to do with the moment that we were in that made it feel right. I feel really proud about that, but running for office or holding office has never been one of my long-term career aspirations.
Was there any vindication in seeing someone like Mamdani, who many did not originally see as a viable candidate, succeed in the primary? Any small sense of satisfaction or justice?
There’s nothing small about it. I am always thrilled to see the underdog, the outsider, the folks that are not expected to have a seat at the table, I am always thrilled to see them thrive and come out on top. I think we need more of that, and that’s exactly why I’m going to El Puente. That is the work of El Puente, to help make sure that the folks who generally do not have a voice, or not given a voice, can claim that space and help really determine their own future.
Is there any bitterness that you needed to get over to get to this point regarding your abandonment by the progressive movement, like the Working Families Party rescinding its endorsement or Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez endorsing Maya Wiley?
I wouldn’t say bitterness. I think there was a sadness. I think at the time, there were things that I could have said that I didn’t, but I also think that was right for me at the time. I think we’ve all learned and grown from that. And most of those relationships have been mended, and you people have been able to step up and sort of own their own mistakes. I am certainly in a different place. I am looking forward and not really holding on to those times.