Darializa Avila Chevalier

*Darializa Avila Chevalier (born December 3, 1993) is an American politician and activist. 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 the 2026 election. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darializa_Avila_Chevalier

• Born and raised in Florida, Avila Chevalier moved to New York City in 2012 to study at Columbia College, where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Middle Eastern studies. She is a doctoral student in sociology at the City University of New York (CUNY), studying "the ways Black immigrants from Latin America are impacted by the US criminal system and deportation".
• As a student at Columbia College, Avila Chevalier organized with Students for Justice in Palestine and Mobilized African Diaspora. In summer 2014, at 20 years old, Avila Chevalier lived in the Palestinian city of Nablus while interning for Tomorrow's Youth Organization to teach English to Palestinian toddlers and children. Upon her return from Palestine, she saw similarities between "systems of policing, of deportation, of the controlling of our movement" in the US and Israel. The 2014 Gaza War began days later.
• After graduation, she organized with BYP100
• As an alumna, Avila Chevalier participated in the protests at Columbia University for a ceasefire and against the Gaza war, for which she was targeted by Canary Mission, a pro-Israel doxing website. 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 Chevalier's fellow congressional candidate and campaign partner
• On April 30, 2024, riot police forcibly removed Avila Chevalier and other protesters from their position at the entrance to Hamilton Hall, bruising her and other protesters.
• Avila Chevalier works as an investigator at the public defender legal organization Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, where she is a member of the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys – United Auto Workers Local 2325. Her work has investigated cases of police brutality.
• Avila Chevalier is a member of the New York City Democratic Socialists of America (NYC-DSA), which she joined in 2025. She has described her political views as having been informed by the Black radical tradition, specifically the writings of Angela Davis and Assata Shakur, as well as her 2014 experience in Palestine. In the 2025 New York City mayoral election, Avila Chevalier was an organizing lead on DSA member Zohran Mamdani's campaign for Mayor of New York City. She ranked Brad Lander fifth on her ballot out of protest.
• On April 13, 2026, Avila Chevalier joined a protest by Jewish Voice for Peace 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". In March 2026, she participated in a Columbia University rally calling for the release of Mahmoud Khalil and Leqaa Kordia.
• 2026 congressional campaign
  • 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. NY-13 encompasses Harlem and the southwest section of the Bronx and is one of the most Democratic districts in the country. At 32, she would be one of the youngest members of Congress. Avila Chevalier was the only challenger to outraise an incumbent in New York City during the first quarter of 2026.
  • Avila Chevalier was recruited to run by Justice Democrats, who had previously helped Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez win her 2018 election against an incumbent. Avila Chevalier has been endorsed by New York mayor Zohran Mamdani, United Auto Workers Region 9A, the New York City Democratic Socialists of America, and Jewish Voice for Peace Action. She also has the support of former US representative Jamaal Bowman and political commentator Hasan Piker.
  • Espaillat retained support from several progressive Democrats, including Congressional Progressive Caucus chair Greg Casar. The Congressional Black Caucus also backed him in the primary.
  • The race highlighted tensions within the Democratic Party between its "establishment" wing and democratic socialists. Espaillat called Avila Chevalier's democratic socialism a "failed ideology".*
• Avila Chevalier has been "unequivocal in condemning Israel as an apartheid state committing genocide". 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." 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."
• Several of Avila Chevalier's tweets from a deleted account, dating from 2018 to 2022, were points of contention in the campaign
  • advocated for social ownership of the means of production, prison abolition, police abolition, and border abolition. She rejected the view that Israel has a "right to exist" as a Jewish state. She responded to coverage of her posts by saying, "I was young, yes, and I was a millennial with internet access"
• Avila Chevalier is a democratic socialist. Avila Chevalier opposes all forms of deportation, detention, inprisonment, and the war in Gaza. She supports abolishing US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and supports universal housing and fully funded schools.
• *Avila Chevalier has strongly criticized Espaillat's support of Israel, and for accepting campaign funds from AIPAC. In an interview with Jewish Currents, she said that "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".
• Avila Chevalier supports the Block the Bombs Act, which would limit the sale, transfer, or exporting of defense articles and services to Israel.*
• In 2022, Avila Chevalier tweeted that the reason the United States was involved in the Russian invasion of Ukraine was because "the Cold War ended and we've been bullying Russia ever since." In a 2026 interview she said she believed that Ukraine was a victim of Russia's violation of its sovereignty, and that diplomacy with Russia should be pursued.
• Avila Chevalier 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.
• Avila Chevalier supports prison abolition.