NEW YORK — On October 8, 2023, the day after the Hamas onslaught in southern Israel, US Rep. Adriano Espaillat, a New York City Democrat, attended a vigil in his district.
“We stand here in solidarity with the State of Israel and to denounce terrorism,” he said . Soon after, he plastered the window of his Manhattan office with images of the hostages held in Gaza.
The same day, a little-known activist, Darializa Avila Chevalier, attended a Times Square rally that celebrated the Hamas attack , standing at its barricade, wearing a keffiyeh.
The two are now facing off in a heated Democratic primary for the city’s 13th Congressional District. The race, alongside two other primaries in New York City, will test the far-left Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) organization’s anti-Israel platform and Congressional aspirations in New York City.
Espaillat represents establishment, centrist Democrats and their views on Israel, while Chevalier is a flag-bearer for the far-left movement that has made antagonism toward Israel central to its politics. If Chevalier and the other leftist candidates win, it will boost the far left and provide the movement with lessons related to political fundraising, anti-Israel campaigning and candidates’ histories. Losses will be a setback for the movement and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
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Espaillat, 71, is a longtime political operative in the city with deep ties in the neighborhood. He has represented the area in the state legislature since 1997 and in Congress since 2017. The district, in Upper Manhattan and part of the Bronx, includes Harlem, Washington Heights, Inwood, and Morningside Heights, home to Columbia University.
US Rep. Adriano Espaillat, a New York Democrat, speaks to reporters outside the Delaney Hall detention center, in Newark, New Jersey, May 27, 2026. (AP/Seth Wenig)
Mamdani, whose home base is the DSA, won most of the area by a comfortable margin in last year’s mayoral race. The district’s demographics are usually more of a stretch for the far left, which performs best in the so-called “Commie Corridor” in parts of Brooklyn and Queens. Those areas are more gentrified, while District 13 is more working-class.
The district is racially mixed and Jews make up around six percent of residents, according to a 2024 estimate .
Like most of New York City, the area is solidly Democratic, which means next week’s primary will almost certainly decide who wins the general election.
Mamdani and the far left have lined up behind Chevalier, while the Democratic Party establishment supports Espaillat, setting up a showdown between the two camps.
Like Mamdani, but more so
Chevalier is part of a cadre of far-left hopefuls riding on the momentum of Mamdani’s upset election win last year, and is like Mamdani, but more so.
Both entered politics with activism against Israel, have made the issue central to their identities and campaigns, are fueled by the DSA and its energetic base and focus on issues like affordability. Both are young people of color and Muslims, Chevalier by conversion.
Mamdani and Chevalier have often connected domestic problems in the US to Israel. During the campaign, Chevalier has linked Israel to US food, law enforcement, racism, immigration, and housing, saying the same “corporate interests” displace Palestinians and minority Americans.
“I see our tax dollars going towards a war, towards a genocide, towards things that are not helping our community,” Chevalier said in a Tuesday debate.
When discussing immigration enforcement in the district, she has attacked Espaillat for not giving enough support to Columbia protest leader Mahmoud Khalil, who was arrested in the district for deportation. Chevalier joined Columbia’s protest encampment during the Gaza war.
Chevalier attributes her political awakening to two months of volunteering in the West Bank in 2014.
“I saw so many connections to what was happening to Palestinians there in Palestine and what was happening to so many communities across the US, particularly black and Latino communities,” she said in the debate. “It showed me that connection, not only that it is like, but it is the very same system.”
Alongside Mamdani’s political rise, a Chevalier victory would further signal that focusing on Israel can be a winning campaign platform.
There is little polling in the Espaillat-Chevalier race; a poll by a pro-Espaillat group put him slightly ahead, while a survey by a group favoring Chevalier put her in the lead.
A history of extreme statements
There are significant differences between Chevalier and the mayor. Mamdani ran against the centrist Andrew Cuomo while holding elected office — even if his legislative record was scant — in the New York State Assembly, while Chevalier, a doctoral student, has not held office and did not have a public profile before entering the race…
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