Darializa Avila Chevalier, a democratic socialist who pulled off the most stunning victory in New York’s Democratic House primaries on Tuesday, came up through social justice activism with far-left stances and a history of inflammatory comments that Republicans are using to paint her as emblematic of her party.
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Avila Chevalier, a 32-year-old doctoral student and activist, unseated Rep. Adriano Espaillat with the backing of Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the Democratic Socialists of America. She’s a first-time candidate with no experience in government and has spent years advocating for Palestinians, including as an organizer at Columbia University, since spending a summer in the West Bank at age 20.
That history of activism and her social media posts have brought Avila Chevalier intense scrutiny.
Claire Valdez and Brad Lander, the other Mamdani-backed candidates who won competitive House primaries in New York, have not drawn the same level of attention.
Here’s what to know about Avila Chevalier, who as the Democratic nominee in a heavily Democratic district will almost certainly join Congress.
Avila Chevalier, an Afro-Latina daughter of Dominican immigrants, moved to New York from Florida in 2012 to attend Columbia University. After graduating with a degree in Middle Eastern studies, she became an activist for groups, including BYP100, a Black racial justice organization founded after the killing of Trayvon Martin, and Families for Freedom, which focuses on helping those facing deportation.
She has cited her experiences organizing, and being surrounded by Muslim friends and allies, as prompting her recent conversion to Islam.
Since 2019, she has been a doctoral student in sociology at the City University of New York. In recent years, she has also worked as an investigator in a public defender office.
Last year, Avila Chevalier worked as an organizing lead for Mamdani’s mayoral bid before launching her campaign against Espaillat, who is chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
Avila Chevalier said during her campaign that she was better suited to represent the upper Manhattan and Bronx district’s progressive values and that “people’s lives haven’t gotten better” under Espaillat’s representation. She also slammed him for taking money from groups lobbying for Israel and the real estate industry.
Avila Chevalier’s past comments on social media followed her throughout the campaign. Between 2018 and 2022, Avila Chevalier frequently posted profanity-laden criticism of Democratic leaders on X.
In a 2021 tweet responding to then-Vice President Kamala Harris telling migrants not to enter the United States from Mexico, Avila Chevalier posted, “I have no nuance to add. F— Kamala Harris.” Espaillat’s allies amplified that post in fliers and television advertisements. Asked about the comment during a debate, Avila Chevalier apologized to Harris and said she would “have loved to have seen a Black woman president.”
In 2020, Avila Chevalier called Joe Biden a “rapist” as he neared clinching the Democratic nomination. She has since said that she voted for both Biden and Harris.
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In other posts, Avila Chevalier disparaged interracial relationships with White people, described the covid-19 pandemic as a “European plague,” and called for “no more police at all ever.” She also advocated for abolishing prisons, getting rid of borders and seizing private property.
“I am a millennial with an internet connection, and obviously the way I talk about these things now is not at all how I talked about them then,” Avila Chevalier said this year.
While an undergraduate student at Columbia University, Avila Chevalier joined Students for Justice in Palestine and led an effort calling for the university to divest from Israeli assets.
The day after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, which prompted the Gaza war, she attended a pro-Palestinian rally in Times Square, according to City & State New York. The rally was later condemned by Democratic officials, including Lander, the city’s comptroller at the time, and Gov. Kathy Hochul.
“I can only say I have been advocating for the human rights of Palestinians for most of my adult life,” she recently told City & State NY about the event. NYC-DSA, which promoted the event, said it aimed to show “solidarity with the Palestinian people and their right to resist 75 years of occupation and apartheid.”
Avila Chevalier was also involved in Columbia’s Gaza Solidarity Encampment as an alumni organizer who was present on the protest’s first day in 2024. She was among those who blocked the entrance to Hamilton Hall while protesters occupied the building. She was arrested for her involvement, according to Time magazine.
Avila Chevalier supported Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia campus protest leader, and his wife after federal immigration authorities detained him last year. During the campaign, Avila Chevalier said Espaillat failed to stand up for Khalil.
Republicans have signaled that they will use Avila Chevalier as a cudgel against Democrats in the midterm election.
They seized on a recent interview in which Avila Chevalier stood by her past comments calling all deportations “wrong,” including those of people convicted of crimes. In the interview, she said that the U.S. criminal system should not be “discriminatory on the basis of where people were born” and that deportation following criminal penalties amounts to “double punishment.”
“I wonder if she would say that to the parents and loved ones of Sheridan Gorman, Shane Jones or Laken Riley,” Tricia McLaughlin, a former spokeswoman for the Trump administration immigration enforcement effort, wrote on X, referencing people killed in incidents involving undocumented immigrants.
The National Republican Congressional Committee, the campaign arm of House Republicans, also referred to the results across New York City as the Democratic establishment having “surrendered” to its “socialist wing.”
“Every House Democrat, in safe and competitive districts alike, will now answer to the radicals calling the shots,” NRCC spokesman Mike Marinella wrote on X.
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Teo Armus contributed to this report.
