Harlem neighborhood organizer Darializa Avila Chevalier (left) launched a major problem towards U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025.
Photographs courtesy of Justice Democrats and by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Photographs
A left-wing organizer behind final yr’s Columbia College alumni encampment protesting the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza introduced a major problem to Democratic U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat on Thursday.
Darializa Avila Chevalier, 31, was the organizing lead for higher Manhattan and the Bronx for Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s marketing campaign, based on her marketing campaign. She additionally helped set up the Columbia College pupil encampment protesting Israel’s conflict in Gaza in 2024 and stated that she advocated for the discharge of Mahmoud Khalil, a fellow Columbia organizer, when he was detained by federal immigration authorities earlier this yr.
Avila Chevalier launched her bid for the Higher Manhattan and Bronx Congressional seat held by Espaillat, a four-term incumbent looking for re-election in 2026. She charged that Espaillat doesn’t signify the pursuits of his constituents, who’re struggling to make ends meet. She additionally criticized him for accepting marketing campaign donations from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which advocates for a robust partnership between the U.S. and Israel, and the actual property trade.
“Why should we let Adriano Espaillat vote to spend billions on bombs overseas, when we’re struggling to afford rent and groceries right here in New York City?” Avila Chevalier stated in her marketing campaign launch video.
In a press release responding to Avila Chevalier’s marketing campaign launch, an Espaillat marketing campaign spokesperson stated: “As the first formerly undocumented member of Congress and a neighbor since he was a child, Rep. Espaillat knows firsthand the challenges facing everyday New Yorkers.”
“He has led the fight to make the city more affordable for working families and to stand up for communities too often overlooked,” they continued. “We welcome a full and robust primary and look forward to making the case for his continued leadership in our community and across the country,”
Avila Chevalier is backed by the Justice Democrats, a left-wing group that helped propel U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s upset victory over former U.S. Rep. Joe Crowley in 2018. She is pitching herself as somebody who’s “unbought” by “billionaire greed,” and vowed to show the web page on the established order.
She at present works as an investigator on the Neighborhood Defenders Service of Harlem, based on her marketing campaign.
“Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani showed us what’s possible when we refuse to let the politics of our past dictate the future we can build for all New Yorkers today,” Avila Chevalier stated in a press release. “This campaign is about ensuring that our voices are not only heard in City Hall, but in the halls of Congress where they have been ignored for too long.”
Whereas Espaillat is a extra reasonable Democrat, he backed Mamdani within the basic election after supporting former Gov. Andrew Cuomo within the major.
Since being first elected to Congress in 2016, succeeding long-time Congress Member and Harlem political large Charlie Rangel, Espaillat has develop into a key energy dealer in Higher Manhattan and a swath of the Bronx.
He has mentored and efficiently helped elect a number of Latino officeholders within the areas he represents, together with Metropolis Council Members Shaun Abreu (D-Manhattan), Carmen De La Rosa (D-Manhattan), and Oswald Feliz (D-Bronx), amongst others.
These connections, mixed with Espaillat’s long-standing incumbency, imply Avila Chevalier is more likely to have a tough time unseating him subsequent yr.
Espaillat is the fourth Democratic incumbent Congress member within the metropolis to attract a problem from the left within the wake of Mamdani’s win. Others embody U.S. Reps. Ritchie Torres (D-Bronx), Dan Goldman (D-Manhattan/Brooklyn), and Home Democratic Chief Hakeem Jeffries (Brooklyn).
