Darializa Avila Chevalier, a 32-year-old community organizer and member of the Democratic Socialists of America, was projected to win the Democratic primary for New York’s 13th Congressional District, defeating five-term incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat in one of the most notable upsets of Tuesday’s New York primaries.
The Associated Press called the race for Avila Chevalier late Tuesday. With more than 86% of the expected vote counted, she led Espaillat 49.4% to 45.9%, according to AP results reported by NY1. The district, which includes parts of Upper Manhattan and the Bronx, is overwhelmingly Democratic, making the primary winner the heavy favorite in November.
Avila Chevalier’s victory marked a sharp rebuke to one of New York’s best-known Democratic incumbents. Espaillat, the first Dominican American elected to Congress and the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, had represented the district since 2017. He entered the race with broad institutional support, but Avila Chevalier benefited from energy on the party’s left and the backing of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
The result was part of a strong night for Mamdani-backed candidates and the city’s democratic socialist movement, underscoring the growing tension inside the Democratic Party between establishment figures and insurgent progressives. Avila Chevalier, a sociology Ph.D. student at the CUNY Graduate Center, is a radical who has claimed that her work involves taking down the United States and abolishing police, prisons, and borders. She converted to Islam because she felt so close to the cause of the Palestinians against Israel.
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— Logan Dobson (@LoganDobson) June 24, 2026
Espaillat argued throughout the campaign that his experience in Washington made him best suited to deliver for the district, particularly on affordable housing and infrastructure. He pointed to federal funding for projects such as the Second Avenue subway and the Kingsbridge Armory as examples of what seniority could produce.
That was rejected by the new radical Democratic Party, however.
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