Darializa Avila Chevalier
American political candidate (born 1993 or 1994)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Darializa Avila Chevalier (born 1993 or 1994),[1] also known as DAC,[2][3] is an American political candidate and community organizer. A member of the Democratic Party and the Democratic Socialists of America, she is the Democratic nominee for New York's 13th congressional district in 2026, having defeated incumbent Adriano Espaillat in the primary.
affiliations
City University of New York (MPhil)
Darializa Avila Chevalier | |
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1993 or 1994 (age 32–33) Florida, U.S. |
| Party | Democratic |
Other political affiliations | Democratic Socialists of America[a] |
| Education | Columbia University (BA) City University of New York (MPhil) |
| Website | darializaforcongress |
Early life and education
Avila Chevalier was born and raised in Florida to working-class Dominican immigrant parents.[4][5] Her father is a truck driver and her mother a caseworker.[6] She also lived in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela[7] and speaks fluent Spanish.[8] Her maternal grandfather was a member of the resistance movement against Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo and his successor Joaquín Balaguer, leading the family to emigrate to the US.[9][10]
Avila Chevalier spent her childhood in Miami, and many of her teenage years in Tallahassee, where she attended Hartsfield Elementary School and Fairview Middle School, graduating from James S. Rickards High School in 2012.[11][12][13][14]
Avila Chevalier moved to New York City to study at Columbia College, Columbia University,[4][15] where she was an illustrator for the Columbia Daily Spectator.[16] She graduated in 2016 with a Bachelor of Arts in Middle Eastern studies.[11]
As a student at Columbia College, Avila Chevalier organized with Students for Justice in Palestine and Mobilized African Diaspora.[11] In 2014 Avila Chevalier lived in the Palestinian city of Nablus for around two months while interning for Tomorrow's Youth Organization to teach English to Palestinian toddlers and children. The 2014 Gaza War started shortly after she returned to the US.[8] She highlighted that time as formative for her in connecting the system of oppression Palestinians live under to the American system, saying she came to realize that "these are not only like systems, they are the same system. It was the same tear gas made in the USA that was being dropped on Gaza that was also being used against [Black Lives Matter] protesters in Ferguson."[8] She co-founded student organization Columbia University Apartheid Divest,[17] helping establish it in 2016.[18]
Avila Chevalier began a PhD program in sociology at the Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York,[19] becoming a doctoral candidate by 2025.[19] Her research has focused on immigration law and policy and incarceration in the United States, especially on the ways Black immigrants from Latin America have been affected by the US criminal justice system and deportation.[20]
Early career and activism
Black Youth Project 100
After graduating from Columbia, Avila Chevalier organized with Black Youth Project 100.[21] In 2018, the group demanded removal of a Central Park statue of J. Marion Sims, a 19th-century gynecologist who forcibly subjected enslaved Black women to experiments involving painful surgical techniques without anesthesia, despite later administering anesthesia to his white patients.[22] Avila Chevalier and three other Black women protested in front of the statue dressed in blood-stained hospital gowns, reading passages from Sims's autobiography, medical journals, and other historical material that highlighted his dehumanization of enslaved women.[23] The statue was moved later that year.[24]
Families for Freedom
In 2019, as an organizer for Families for Freedom, Avila Chevalier protested to free Abdikadir Mohamed Felt, a Somali immigrant affected by President Donald Trump's "Muslim ban", from United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention.[25] She later published an analysis of the convergence of US counterterrorism policy and immigration enforcement as exemplified by the emergence of United States Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) secretive units known as Tactical Terrorism Response Teams, with Abdikadir Mohamed's encounter with such a unit serving as a case study.[26]
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As an alumna, Avila Chevalier participated in the April 2024 Gaza Solidarity Encampment,[27] part of the protests at Columbia University demanding that the university officially call for a ceasefire and disinvest from Israel during the war and genocide in Gaza,[28][29][30][15][31] for which she was targeted by Canary Mission, a pro-Israel doxing website.[21] On October 8, 2023, she attended a pro-Palestinian rally in Times Square organized by the Party for Socialism and Liberation that was condemned by New York Governor Kathy Hochul, US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and New York City Councilman Brad Lander, who is now Avila Chevalier's fellow Democratic congressional nominee and campaign partner.[32][33][34] The rally was condemned by local politicians Brad Lander and Kathy Hochul for allegedly justifying the October 7 attacks.[1]
In November 2023, when Columbia suspended its chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace, Avila Chevalier said the university should "protect speech and protect the right of faculty and students to address these issues in an open and frank way".[35] On April 30, 2024, riot police forcibly removed protesters including Avila Chevalier from their position at the entrance to Hamilton Hall, leaving her and other protesters bruised.[36]
Career
Avila Chevalier has taught at CUNY Lehman College and New York University.[8]
She works as an investigator at the public defender legal organization Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem,[22] where she is a member of the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys – United Auto Workers Local 2325.[37][38] Her work has investigated police brutality in the United States.[7]
Political career
Avila Chevalier is a member of the New York City Democratic Socialists of America (NYC-DSA),[21][10] which she joined in 2025.[8] She has described her political views as having been informed by the Black radical tradition, specifically the writings of Angela Davis and Assata Shakur,[21] as well as her experience in Palestine in 2014.[8] In the 2025 New York City mayoral election, Avila Chevalier was an organizing lead on DSA member Zohran Mamdani's campaign.[4][21][37][38] She ranked Brad Lander fifth on her ballot in protest of his comments about Mahmoud Khalil.[39]
On April 13, 2026, Avila Chevalier joined a Jewish Voice for Peace protest asking Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer to vote against selling weapons to Israel. Police arrested protesters, including Avila Chevalier, whose shirt read "fund people not bombs".[15][40][18] In March 2026, she participated in a Columbia University rally calling for the release of Khalil and Leqaa Kordia.[41][42]
2026 congressional campaign
- 40–50%
- 50–60%
- 60–70%
- 70–80%
- 40–50%
- 50–60%
- 60–70%
- 70–80%
- 80–90%
- 90–100%
Avila Chevalier ran in the Democratic primary for New York's 13th congressional district, challenging incumbent Adriano Espaillat, chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, who has represented the district since 2017.[31][43][44][45] NY-13 encompasses Harlem and the southwest section of the Bronx and is one of the most Democratic districts in the country.[31] At 32, she would be one of the youngest members of Congress.[46] Avila Chevalier was the only challenger to outraise an incumbent in New York City during the first quarter of 2026.[47] An April 2026 internal campaign poll showed her trailing Espaillat by 18 percentage points after voters were read biographical statements about both candidates.[48]
Avila Chevalier was recruited to run by Justice Democrats,[37][47][49][10] who had previously helped Ocasio-Cortez win her 2018 election against an incumbent.[50] Avila Chevalier has been endorsed by New York mayor Zohran Mamdani,[50][51][52][53][54][55] United Auto Workers Region 9A,[56] the New York City Democratic Socialists of America,[9][57] and Jewish Voice for Peace Action.[4] She also has the support of former US representative Jamaal Bowman[4] and political commentator Hasan Piker.[58]
Outside groups spent heavily in the race. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus's political arm spent to support Espaillat,[59][60] and AIPAC spent at least $650,000 opposing Avila Chevalier;[61] AIPAC-associated donors also spent to support Espaillat.[62][63]
Espaillat retained support from several progressive Democrats, including Congressional Progressive Caucus chair Greg Casar.[64] The Congressional Black Caucus also backed him in the primary.[65] The race highlighted tensions between the Democratic Party's "establishment" wing and its democratic socialists.[66] Espaillat called Avila Chevalier's democratic socialism a "failed ideology".[67]
During the campaign, Avila Chevalier was the target of racism, much of which was animated by anti-Haitian sentiment.[1][68][69] Some Espaillat supporters falsely claimed she was Haitian, questioned her fidelity to the Dominican community in New York City, and called her "Haitian" as a slur.[68][1][70] City & State reported that a senior adviser to Espaillat, Rusking Pimentel, made racist and Islamophobic comments about Avila Chevalier in Spanish language media.[69] Espaillat characterized some Avila Chevalier voters as "the gentrifiers" raising rents. Avila Chevalier supports federal funding to build more social housing.[71]
News media and Espaillat scrutinized tweets Avila Chevalier made from a Twitter account she used from 2018 to 2022, when she was in her 20s.[72] She said she deleted the account to focus on her studies and on organizing.[73] In her tweets, Avila Chevalier criticized mainstream Democrats, calling Joe Biden "a rapist" in 2020, though she later said she voted for him in that year's presidential election.[74][75][76][77] She tweeted "fuck Kamala Harris" in 2021 after Harris gave a speech discouraging migration to the US,[76] but apologized publicly to Harris during a debate.[72] She later said her posts came from a sense of political disempowerment felt by many Americans.[77][78] In other tweets, she advocated prison abolition, police abolition, and border abolition. She rejected the view that Israel has a "right to exist" as a Jewish state.[74][75][76][77] Other tweets related to communism, COVID-19, and interracial relationships.[b] In reference to its focus on Avila Chevalier's tweets, Mehdi Hasan criticized The New York Times for profiling her with more scrutiny than it has given right-wing figures.[82][83] She responded to coverage of her posts by saying, "I was young, yes, and I was a millennial with internet access", and added that the attention was "litigating the politics of the past instead of the politics of the future and the present".[74] Avila Chevalier said she regrets her past Twitter activity due to the division it caused.[73][78] Mamdani reiterated his endorsement of her campaign after the report, citing her ongoing advocacy for immigrants and working-class New Yorkers.[75]
Avila Chevalier defeated Espaillat in the Democratic primary in an upset.[84] According to incomplete returns, she won 49.4% of the vote to his 45.9%; she won younger voters by 24%, college-educated voters by 20%, higher-income voters by 6%, and black voters by 2%. Espaillat won lower-income voters by 10% and Hispanic voters by 16%.[85] If elected in November, Avila Chevalier will be the first socialist to represent the district since Vito Marcantonio in the 1950s.[86]
Political positions
Avila Chevalier is a political progressive[87] and democratic socialist,[81][88][89][90][91] and The New York Times has characterized her views as far-left.[92] In an interview with MS NOW, she said she is not a communist.[93] Avila Chevalier opposes all forms of deportation as well as US support for Israel during the war and genocide in Gaza.[93][21][94] Her platform has included universal healthcare, stronger tenant protections, funding programs for children instead of funding war, abolishing US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), banning large super PACs from elections, and prohibiting members of Congress from trading stocks.[95][96]
Foreign policy
Israel and Palestine
Avila Chevalier has been "unequivocal in condemning Israel as an apartheid state committing genocide".[33] In March 2026, during a forum with the Broadway Democrats political club, Avila Chevalier, when asked whether she condemned Hamas for the October 7 attacks, responded: "The premise of that question, to me, ignores the 75 years of occupation that the Palestinian people have been subjected to and the conditions that folks were living under before this genocide began."[33] When asked about condemning Hamas again in June, she said she did but added, "As far as I know, the US does not send a single dime to Hamas. What we fund is the Israeli military."[33]
Avila Chevalier has been active in protests against US support for Israel and strongly criticized Espaillat's support of Israel and acceptance of campaign funds from AIPAC during the primary.[28][97][98] In an interview with Jewish Currents, she said Espaillat "has used his time in Congress to give ICE billions, fund the Israeli military, and vote for Trump's crypto corruption—while being bankrolled by AIPAC and the real estate lobby".[99]
Avila Chevalier supports the Block the Bombs Act, which would limit the sale, transfer, or exporting of defense articles and services to Israel.[18] In June, American Priorities, a super PAC established to oppose AIPAC, pledged funding to support Avila Chevalier, Claire Valdez, and Brad Lander.[100]
Ukraine
In 2022, Avila Chevalier tweeted that the reason the United States was involved in the Russian invasion of Ukraine was that "the Cold War ended and we've been bullying Russia ever since".[76][101] In a 2026 interview, she said she believed Ukraine was a victim of Russia's violation of its sovereignty, and that diplomacy with Russia should be pursued.[102][unreliable source?]
Housing
Avila Chevalier supports universal housing, stronger tenant protections, and federal funding to build more social housing.[71][95] She has criticized gentrification and displacement in the district, saying that over 200,000 Black New Yorkers have left the city in the last 20 years.[95]
Healthcare and social spending
Avila Chevalier supports universal healthcare through Medicare For All.[95][96] "Babies Not Bombs" was a signature pledge of her campaign.[96][95] She has called for federal resources to be directed toward schools, housing, and social safety-net programs.[95][96]
Campaign finance and corporate power
Avila Chevalier supports banning large super PACs from elections and prohibiting members of Congress from trading stocks.[95]
Billionaires
In an interview with Ryan Grim on the podcast Breaking Points, she agreed with Fran Lebowitz's suggestion that billionaires threatening to leave New York City should do so.[103]
Immigration
Avila Chevalier supports abolishing ICE,[104][105] expanding pathways to citizenship for immigrants in the US,[52] and opposes all forms of deportation, saying in a June 2026 interview, "I have yet to come up with a reason for why deportation has been used in a way that isn't rooted in deeply racist ideology." When Astead Herndon asked her about the deportation of people convicted of breaking US criminal law, she responded that she opposed it, saying:
We have a criminal system. It isn't perfect, but it exists, and if it is one that we accept as the process by which we want to engage with these issues—issues of harm, issues of criminality, or what have you—then we need to make sure that it isn't one that is also discriminatory on the basis of where people were born.[106]
When asked about open borders, Avila Chevalier called free movement an "ideal vision", saying, "capital can move freely across the world, but people are trapped."[102] In 2025, Avila Chevalier wrote an op-ed in USA Today calling for the freedom of Mahmoud Khalil after he was taken from his home and detained by ICE, writing:
Immigration courts and detention centers have, for decades, been an abuse of administrative power. By targeting Mahmoud, Trump is now taking this abuse of power to a whole new level and making an example of him to silence those speaking out for the lives and human rights of Palestinians.[19]
Policing and public safety
Avila Chevalier supports prison abolition.[102]
Personal life
Avila Chevalier is Afro-Latina.[4][29] In 2018, she converted to Islam.[10][8] Since 2023, she has been in a romantic relationship with Ramzi Kassem, who in 2026 became the chief legal counsel in Zohran Mamdani's mayoral administration.[107]
Electoral history
2026 U.S. House of Representatives
| Primary election | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
| Democratic | Darializa Avila Chevalier | 32,790 | 48.60 | |
| Democratic | Adriano Espaillat (incumbent) | 30,464 | 45.15 | |
| Democratic | Oscar J. Romero Jr | 2,340 | 3.47 | |
| Democratic | Theo Bruce Chino-Tavarez | 532 | 0.79 | |
| Total votes | 67,473 | 100.0 | ||
Notes
- The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is not a registered political party but a political organization for those with democratic socialist ideologies.
- One of her posts in 2019 supported the seizure of the means of production. Her repost called for nationalization of pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and landlords' property.[75] Avila Chevalier's tweets from 2020 to 2022 contained various references to communism and Marxism. One of her retweets recommended that people read Karl Marx's Das Kapital.[79] In a May 2020 tweet, she called COVID-19 a "European plague" and boosted a post suggesting the virus originated in France rather than Wuhan, China. She also criticized "Black" and "Arab men" for "fetishizing ugly colonizer women".[72][80] In another tweet she responded to a prompt of "interracial relationship discourse, go" with a celebratory image, followed by "No yts tho" and an emoji. The New York Times and The Washington Post suggested this disparaged interracial relationships involving White people.[81][76]