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<h2>"Mamdani’s Win Is Inspiring A Wave Of Left-Wing Challengers In NYC"</h2>The latest progressive candidate to run is Darializa Avila Chevalier, who is challenging the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

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Everyday, we see more &amp; more of our neighbors pushed out of our community because of rising costs &amp; a political establishment that has sold us out.We’re fighting to stay here and live full, dignified lives in the city we call home.

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Running for Congress in NY-13.Fighting to put working people first.

<h2>"Justice Democrats Re-Emerge in New York to Try to Unseat Espaillat"</h2>The group, which powered Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s rise in 2018, is backing Darializa Avila Chevalier’s bid to unseat Representative Adriano Espaillat.

For all media inquiries, please email <a href="mailto:press@darializaforcongress.com">press@darializaforcongress.com</a>For all other inquiries, please email <a href="mailto:info@darializaforcongress.com">info@darializaforcongress.com</a> or submit this form.

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<h3>Darializa is a working-class Afro-Latina who has been organizing in upper Manhattan for a fairer, more equitable, and more affordable New York City since she was a teenager.</h3><img src="https://run.imgix.net/bfe892f9-cbb8-4cd8-a0fa-d577b253aaee/cd5ef809-6b36-46cc-9a6b-7c8599afb1af/cd5ef809-6b36-46cc-9a6b-7c8599afb1af.jpeg?ixlib=js-3.8.0&amp;bri=0&amp;con=0&amp;sat=0&amp;high=0&amp;shad=0&amp;usm=0&amp;rect=0%2C0%2C513%2C685&amp;w=1500" alt="" caption="" align="left" alignwidth="40" tiltdirection="left" variant="framed">Raised by working-class Dominican immigrant parents, Darializa’s experience seeing loved ones struggle with immigration issues, socioeconomic inequality, and structural racism shaped her worldview and deepened her commitment to organizing for a better future.From successfully organizing to take down the statue of J. Marion Sims — a 19th century gynecologist who experimented on enslaved women without anesthesia — that had stood for 100+ years in Central Park, to working to free U.S. permanent resident Abdikadir Mohamed from his 1.5 year ICE detention caused by Trump’s 2017 "Muslim ban," to her current work as an investigator at a public defender’s office in Harlem, her career has always centered around fighting for New Yorkers in one form or another.<img src="https://run.imgix.net/bfe892f9-cbb8-4cd8-a0fa-d577b253aaee/8708f674-493f-45da-b11c-ffa7a5e8b4fa/8708f674-493f-45da-b11c-ffa7a5e8b4fa.tif?ixlib=js-3.8.0&amp;bri=0&amp;con=0&amp;sat=0&amp;high=0&amp;shad=0&amp;usm=0&amp;rect=0%2C0%2C1200%2C1600&amp;w=1500" alt="" caption="" align="right" alignwidth="40" tiltdirection="left" variant="framed">As a Columbia alumna, she was also a lead organizer of the encampment on Columbia's campus in 2023-2024, standing in solidarity with Palestinians and urging Columbia to divest its endowment from companies profiting from Israel’s genocide and apartheid system, in compliance with demands from the Boycott, Divest, Sanction movement.When her friend and fellow organizer at Columbia's encampment, Mahmoud Khalil was abducted by ICE from his apartment building in March 2025, she organized and <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2025/03/13/columbia-university-ice-detention-mahmoud-khalil/82316469007/">advocated</a> for his release, and his reunion with his wife and newborn son.<img src="https://run.imgix.net/bfe892f9-cbb8-4cd8-a0fa-d577b253aaee/16b1cb42-8cd6-408d-ac23-7f0b4ddf09f1/16b1cb42-8cd6-408d-ac23-7f0b4ddf09f1.png?ixlib=js-3.8.0&amp;bri=0&amp;con=0&amp;sat=0&amp;high=0&amp;shad=0&amp;usm=0&amp;rect=0%2C0%2C1125%2C1561&amp;w=1500" alt="" caption="" align="left" alignwidth="32" variant="framed">She is currently a public defense investigator at the Neighborhood Defenders Services of Harlem. Through her work, she is a card-carrying member of the UAW and organizes her fellow rank-and-file members across NYC.After graduating from Columbia, she fought against family separation as an organizer at Families for Freedom and as a paralegal in a law office, where she supported New Yorkers who had experienced violence at the hands of police or the prison system. In 2024, she also received a MPhil in Sociology from the Graduate Center, CUNY, where she specialized in interrogating concepts of race, deportation, and national security policy.During the 2025 election cycle, she also served as an organizing lead for Zohran Mamdani’s successful — and historic —&nbsp;campaign for Mayor. Darializa’s leadership is rooted in community organizing and the belief in equity and justice for her community in upper Manhattan and the West Bronx. She has seen the impact that years of divestment and policies of organized abandonment has had on her community.She knows her community deserves better — and she won’t stop organizing until that promise becomes reality.<img src="https://run.imgix.net/bfe892f9-cbb8-4cd8-a0fa-d577b253aaee/f33a73b6-1519-4e72-8bf4-5c250d0c0605/f33a73b6-1519-4e72-8bf4-5c250d0c0605.jpeg?ixlib=js-3.8.0&amp;bri=0&amp;con=0&amp;sat=0&amp;high=0&amp;shad=0&amp;usm=0&amp;rect=0%2C673%2C1202%2C813&amp;w=1500" alt="" caption="" align="center" alignwidth="40" tiltdirection="left" variant="framed">

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<h2>"Hispanic Caucus chair becomes latest House Dem to draw a primary foe"</h2>Congressional Hispanic Caucus chair&nbsp;Adriano Espaillat&nbsp;(D-N.Y.) on Wednesday became the latest House Democrat being targeted by a leftist primary challenger.

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<h2>"Justice Dems Pick Longtime Organizer to Take Harlem"</h2>Darializa Avila Chevalier is challenging AIPAC-backed Rep. Adriano Espaillat and pledging to take the affordability fight to D.C.

Dozens of local organizations and leaders are standing together!

Proudly Supporting Darializa

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New York City Democratic Socialists of America

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Justice Democrats

Jewish Voice for Peace Action

Track AIPAC

Council on American–Islamic Relations Action

Former Congressman Jamaal Bowman

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Darializa’s leadership is rooted in community organizing &amp; the belief in equity and justice for her community in upper Manhattan &amp; the West Bronx.

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<h2>Come knock doors, make phone calls, and talk to our community about Darializa and her vision for New York. </h2><h2>Pa'lante!</h2>

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<h2>DSA’s Endorsement of Darializa Avila Chevalier Poses Test of Its Clout</h2>As the group endorses a challenger against longtime Rep. Adriano Espaillat in the 13th District, it’s an open question whether Mayor Mamdani will follow suit.

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While we spend billions overseas waging endless wars and funding genocides with bipartisan support from Washington, more than 100,000 children in New York City’s public schools are homeless. And nationwide, <a href="https://endhomelessness.org/resources/sharable-graphics/nationwide-more-children-live-in-the-state-of-homelessness-than-in-most-american-states/">1.2 million children are homeless</a> — meaning that there are more children who are homeless across the country than there are total children in at least 28 different states.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/23/business/united-states-is-the-richest-country-in-the-world-and-it-has-the-biggest-wealth-gap.html">We live in the richest country in the history of the world.</a> It’s not that our country doesn’t have the resources to fix this: it’s that our leaders in Washington lack the political will.With just the <a href="https://www.nationalpriorities.org/interactive-data/trade-offs/?state=00&amp;program=56">$3.8 billion U.S. taxpayers send to Israel</a> in military aid <a href="https://www.cfr.org/article/us-aid-israel-four-charts">every year</a>, Darializa knows that we could instead be funding almost 400,000 units of deeply affordable public housing, providing 1.3 million low-income children with healthcare, or creating over 39,000 jobs for teachers to educate our kids. Fundamentally, this is an issue about whose lives our Representatives in Washington value, and whose they don’t. Working class communities of color, like so many communities in uptown Manhattan and the Bronx, have suffered for decades from disinvestment from Washington, and everything from our health outcomes to our credit scores have paid the price.&nbsp;We must end the genocide and occupation in Palestine, divest from Israeli apartheid, stop all funding to the Israeli government, and reinvest in us. To invest in our babies is to invest in our entire communities. We must stop funding the bombing of children overseas, and start funding the systems here at home that can support our children reaching their full potential instead.As your Congresswoman, Darializa would work to end childhood poverty, ensure all children have access to a quality education, renew and fully fund expanded child tax credits, fight for universal family leave for all New Yorkers, and more. She would also support the Block the Bombs Acts in Congress and vote against sending weapons or bombs to any country while our families at home continue to be left behind.

We must end the genocide and occupation in Palestine, divest from Israeli apartheid, stop all funding to the Israeli government, and reinvest in us.

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Like <a href="https://nlihc.org/sites/default/files/Housing-Profiles/Congressional-District-Housing-Profile-NY.pdf">88%</a> of our district, Darializa is a renter. She knows what it’s like to watch the vast majority of each month’s paycheck go towards rent and dream about what life could be like if our leaders fought for homes we can truly afford in New York instead of their corporate real estate developer donors. For too many families across our community, the decades of rising rents have meant they’ve either had to leave the neighborhoods where they were or have been teetering on the brink of eviction, barely able to make ends meet.&nbsp; But she knows it doesn’t have to be this way. Together, we can renew the federal commitment to public housing so that NYCHA residents can live with dignity, protect renters, and invest in innovative models that offer permanent affordability and community control. As your Congresswoman, she would:Protect Renters<ul><li>By fighting back against greedy developers and predatory landlords for more federal funding for rental vouchers,&nbsp;</li><li>By supporting federal legislation banning the all-too-common discrimination against tenants holding Section 8 and other vouchers,&nbsp;</li><li>By strengthening tenant rights,&nbsp;</li><li>By supporting Rep. Delia Ramirez’s <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/3049/all-actions-without-amendments" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Tenants’ Right To Organize Act</a>,&nbsp;</li><li>By supporting federal legislation capping rent increases on existing units at 5% annually for landlords who own more than 50 properties or 20 million units,&nbsp;</li><li>By holding landlords who rent to Section 8 voucher holders but violate HUD housing quality standards accountable.</li><li>By supporting the establishment of a federal rental registry alongside LLC transparency legislation, the policy would ensure that New Yorkers can readily identify their landlords rather than interacting with opaque shell entities.</li></ul>Invest in Innovative Housing Models<ul><li>By supporting the Northern Manhattan Community Land Trust (NMCLT) and the creation of other community land trusts in northern Manhattan or the Bronx.</li><li>By working to reform New York City’s outdated and unnecessarily limited ability to expand municipal or state bonding capacity to fund public services and invest in affordable housing.</li><li>By co-sponsoring Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s <a href="https://ocasio-cortez.house.gov/media/press-releases/us-senator-tina-smith-and-congresswoman-ocasio-cortez-introduce-homes-act">Homes Act.</a></li></ul>Renew the Federal Commitment to Public Housing &amp; Invest in NYCHAEveryone deserves a safe, accessible, habitable home to call their own and a landlord that treats them with dignity and respect — not leaking ceilings, broken appliances, and used-up lightbulbs in common areas that never seem to be replaced. The 520,000+ New Yorkers who call NYCHA home are no exception.&nbsp; But for far too many NYCHA residents, that is not the reality. And this is particularly true for our community in uptown Manhattan and the Bronx: <a href="https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/assthsg.html">20% of NYCHA’s 150,428 units are concentrated in NY-13</a>.As your Congresswoman, she would:&nbsp;<ul><li>Use all the tools in our federal toolbox to make decades overdue investments in NYCHA, such as replacing broken elevators, fixing run-down kitchens and bathrooms, replacing lead paint, and much more.</li><li>Work to ensure NYCHA and Section 9 public housing units are protected as homes New Yorkers can truly afford, and not converted to market-rate housing.</li><li>Fight tooth and nail to increase federal commitments to meet NYCHA’s capital needs and push the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to reallocate critical federal dollars to NYCHA developments.</li><li>Push for <a href="https://www.thecity.nyc/2025/02/27/nycha-electric-heat-pumps-housing-energy-queens/">the expansion of heat pump installation</a> (which will ensure residents have access cheaper, more eco-friendly, and more reliable heating and air conditioning) and <a href="https://www.nyserda.ny.gov/About/Newsroom/2025-Announcements/2025-11-13-NYPA-NYCHA-and-NYSERDA-Announce-32-Million-Commitment-to-Electrify-Cooking-Appliances">electric induction stoves</a> (which will decrease indoor air pollution) in NYCHA houses in district.</li><li>Support legislation that prohibits the discrimination and exclusion of New Yorkers with past convictions (and their families) from public housing.</li><li>Co-sponsor Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’s <a href="https://ocasio-cortez.house.gov/media/press-releases/ocasio-cortez-sanders-ramirez-reintroduce-green-new-deal-public-housing-act">Green New Deal For Public Housing Act</a>, and more.</li></ul>She knows that the fabric of our communities&nbsp; — and our city — are made stronger by affordable housing, and she would work closely with community members, tenants, tenant organizers, and housing justice advocates to enact truly affordable, accessible housing from Harlem to Kingsbridge and everywhere in between.

Darializa knows what it’s like to watch the vast majority of each month’s paycheck go towards rent and dream about what life could be like if our leaders fought for homes we can truly afford in New York instead of their corporate real estate developer donors.

Housing for All

Throughout her life as the daughter of Dominican immigrants, Darializa has seen firsthand how unnecessarily chaotic and complicated our immigration system can be. But under the current Administration, the cruelty has been dialed up to 100, and the fascist overreach of ICE and CBP’s militarization into our communities is overwhelming.And the amount of taxpayer dollars spent on funding this cruelty is overwhelming, too: thanks to President Trump’s recent legislation to increase ICE funding, ICE now has an <a href="https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/ice-funding-world-militaries-b2790466.html">unprecedented budget of $27.8 billion annually</a>.&nbsp; ICE has only been in existence for just over two decades, after being created as part of the Bush administration’s “War on Terror.” It is now being used to terrorize all of our communities, ripping families apart, violently assaulting New Yorkers, deporting immigrants to countries they’ve never been to, and detaining our neighbors in private prisons and detention centers under disgusting conditions. There is no justification for a secret police force serving as an extension of an authoritarian President’s will. It’s time to abolish ICE. As your Congresswoman, Darializa will fight back against the mass deportations, kidnapping, and inhumane detention our immigrant communities are being subjected to every day. She will work to protect our community from deportation and family separation, to enact an immediate pathway to citizenship for DREAMers and undocumented immigrants, and to enshrine in law protections for sensitive sites. She will also work to ensure New York’s sanctuary city status is upheld and protected, fighting back alongside Zohran Mamdani against the Trump administration’s efforts to deny critical funding because we, as a city, work to keep our neighbors safe.&nbsp;

As your Congresswoman, Darializa will fight back against the mass deportations, kidnapping, and inhumane detention our immigrant communities are being subjected to every day.

Abolish ICE

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Running for Congress in NY-13.
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