Democratic socialist Darializa Avila Chevalier is projected to win Tuesday’s Democratic primary in New York’s 13th Congressional District, a stunning defeat for incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat and a sign of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s strong influence on his city’s voters.
Avila Chevalier’s Populist Campaign
Avila Chevalier, a 32-year-old community organizer who worked on Mamdani’s campaign, had the mayor’s endorsement in her bid against Espaillat, a five-term congressman and the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. She ran a populist campaign centered on making housing a human right, universal health care, abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement and fighting corporate greed.
She also criticized Espaillat, 71, for failing to adequately represent the working-class residents of this district, which includes Upper Manhattan and parts of the West Bronx.
“I’m someone who has felt equally abandoned by establishment politics,” Avila Chevalier said earlier Tuesday on the popular radio show, The Breakfast Club. “I see that all over my community, when folks talk about the moment that we’re in, where their rents are rising, more and more of our loved ones are moving away because they just can’t afford to stay here, and all of that coinciding with a housing crisis.”
Espaillat’s Establishment Support
Espaillat had been leading in recent polling, and racked up endorsements from prominent establishment figures like New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James. He also comfortably outraised Avila Chevalier, with $2.6 million to her $1.1 million.
But this race was also a test of Mamdani’s sway over voters, and of his democratic socialist vision for the city. It turns out it is very strong: his popularity remains high months into his tenure and his decision to endorse Avila Chevalier went a long way in raising her visibility.
“When I looked at her track record as someone who has freed some of our neighbors who have been unjustly detained by ICE, I thought that there could be no better person to fight back against the cruelty of that agency,” Mamdani said earlier Tuesday, on the same show with Avila Chevalier. “She has built a campaign that’s on the precipice of making her the next congressperson. But what she needs is to just break through to New Yorkers who are too busy trying to make ends meet to think about the next election. Today is that election day.”
Party Tensions and Israel Factor
His snub of Espaillat infuriated some in his party, including House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Latino leaders on Capitol Hill, who stood by their colleague.
“Outrageous,” Rep. Juan Vargas (D-Calif.) told PunchBowl News earlier this month. “Here we have the leader of the Hispanic Caucus, who has worked hard in his position, a very progressive guy, and all of a sudden he’s cut off at the knees by the mayor, who told him he was going to support him.”
Tensions had been simmering around this race. Espaillat didn’t endorse Mamdani in his primary last year, but after he won it, the congressman backed him. The mayor reportedly assured Espaillat at the time he would support him in the future if he ever needed it.
Fast forward to this year, and Mamdani threw his support behind Avila Chevalier amid her criticism of Israel over its genocide in Gaza. Espaillat, meanwhile, has close ties to the pro-Israel group American Israel Public Affairs Committee, whose super PAC gave $650,000 to a group backing Espaillat last month.
Espaillat brushed off the loss of the mayor’s endorsement at the time.
“Mayor Mamdani is entitled to support the candidate of his choice,” the congressman told The New York Times last month. “But one endorsement does not make a race. Voters do.”
