A certain local political publication boldly suggested she might be “the next AOC,” and sure enough, super-left insurgent candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier has managed to take down a five-term member of Congress. The defeat of Rep. Adriano Espaillat is a marquee victory for New York City’s leftwing movement this cycle, further empowering the New York City Democratic Socialists of America, the Justice Democrats and Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
The Associated Press called the race for Avila Chevalier just after 10:30 p.m., having secured 49% of the vote to oust Espaillat in the contentious 13th Congressional District race. Espaillat, the five term-incumbent, trailed with 46% of the vote.
“Every single one of us has a story about being let down by our governments, by our representatives,” Avila Chevalier said, addressing a crowd of supporters gathered at Sofrito in Hamilton Heights after arriving victorious with the mayor just shy of midnight. “No longer will we accept the politics that throw scraps at us and act like we should be grateful for them.”
Around an hour and a half earlier, Espaillat had arrived at his own election night party to give a far more muted concession speech. “Tonight wasn’t our night. … But I love you anyway,” he told the crowd. He added that he never expected to become a member of Congress when he first came to the United States from the Dominican Republic as a child. “That is the privilege of my life… to serve you, the community,” Espaillat said. “And I will continue to love and serve this community in the best way that I can.”
In February 2025, Avila Chevalier, a 32-year-old longtime pro-Palestinian activist who was working on her doctorate in sociology from the City University of New York, emailed the Justice Democrats with complaints about Espaillat. She was particularly upset about his lack of response on issues related to Palestine. “A few of us have been thinking that it might be worth introducing an electoral strategy to unseat or push him on his policies,” she wrote. By August, Justice Democrats were backing her. In November, she won the endorsement of the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America handily.
Still, her campaign remained largely under the radar until Mamdani made a shocking endorsement on national television at the end of May, garnering the ire of Espaillat and some other establishment Latino Democrats. At that moment, the race broke through, drawing the notice of national political forces – and more than $9 million in super PAC spending.
What followed was a deluge of negative coverage of Avila Chevalier’s past statements on social media. Between 2018 and 2022, she called former President Joe Biden “a rapist,” wrote “fuck Kamala Harris” in response to Harris’ speech discouraging migration to the U.S., bemoaned “Black” and “Arab men” for “fetishizing ugly colonizer women,” and more. Espaillat and his supporters deployed that oppo aggressively, competing to define the first-time candidate before she had the chance to define herself and forcing her to apologize for the way she expressed herself in the past.
The race turned ugly in its final days, with a high-profile Espaillat supporter alleging in Dominican media that Avila Chevalier isn’t actually Dominican, and that she and Mamdani were attempting to help Haitians and Muslims take over the district. On election day, Avila Chevalier walked out of a Spanish language radio interview on La Mega 97.9 FM after the hosts began to yell at her for disrespecting the flag of the Dominican Republic. She said they were citing misinformation from her opponent.
Referencing the bevy of attacks and the millions in spending against her campaign, Avila Chevalier described “the Democratic machine” and AIPAC as “scared.” “We’ve seen the lengths they will go to protect their power,” she said, adding that supporters triumphed despite the steep opposition.
Addressing supporters in Spanish, Espaillat said he planned to call Avila Chevalier tonight to congratulate her, and to offer his support to help her transition to Congress and ensure her success in the House.
Espaillat, who has been in Congress for more than nine years, was the first Dominican and first formerly undocumented member of Congress and served as chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. He is not the typical establishment Democrat who found themselves on the receiving end of a progressive insurgent challenge. And yet, Avila Chevalier made the case that he had been out of touch with his constituents – primarily on issues pertaining to immigration enforcement and conflicts in the Middle East. A primary criticism has been Espaillat’s acceptance of pro-Israel PAC money, both in the form of AIPAC-directed contributions to his campaign as well as AIPAC and Democratic Majority for Israel PAC uncoordinated spending on his behalf.
Espaillat acknowledged the fact that the mayor had gone all in for Avila Chevalier. The congressman initially endorsed against Mamdani in the Democratic primary in favor of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, but later backed the now-mayor in the general election.
“He decided to endorse my opponent, I respect the mayor’s decision,” Espaillat told reporters. “I accept what happened tonight with elegance.”
