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 Espailliat in the contentious 13th Congressional District race.Espaillat, the five term-incumbent, trailed with 46% of the vote.
Espaillat arrived at his election night party at roughly 10:30 p.m. to give his concession speech, greeted by supporters who cheered him on despite the unexpected loss. “Tonight wasn’t our night. … But I love you anyway,” he told the crowd.
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.
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.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
