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<h2>DSA-Backed Challenger Says She’s Gaining on Rep. Adriano Espaillat</h2>An internal campaign poll has political newcomer Darializa Avila Chevalier gaining on Rep. Adriano Espaillat in a fast-heating contest in Upper Manhattan and The Bronx.

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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.

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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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<h2>Advocates rally for the release of a woman held by ICE for nearly a year</h2>Dozens of people held signs and chanted outside the campus, calling for the release of Leqaa Kordia, a 33-year-old Palestinian woman from Paterson. Advocates are also urging Columbia University to strengthen protections for students against immigration enforcement on campus.

<h2>The Next Commie Corridor?</h2>Adriano Espaillat has outlasted everyone. His district is changing anyway.

<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.

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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<h2>DSA is targeting Rep. Adriano Espaillat in NY-13</h2>Darializa Avila Chevalier is a pro-Palestine activist and public defense investigator who is running against the uptown power broker.

<h2>Why I’m Answering the May Day Call to Action By Running for Congress</h2>The workers of Uptown and The Bronx have been making the demand for a better life for over a century but Washington has ignored their demands for too long. I’m running to make sure it finally has an answer.

<h2>Mahmoud Khalil, SIPA ’24, addresses dozens at rally marking one year since ICE arrest</h2>At a vigil, press conference, and rally outside Columbia’s gates, community members criticized the University’s response to immigration enforcement and called for a “sanctuary campus.”

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

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<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.

<h2>‘Fund people, not bombs’: inside the US movement against war in Iran</h2>

<h2>Race for Rep. Adriano Espaillat’s congressional seat draws legal objections from multiple campaigns</h2>From the incumbent Espaillat to a democratic socialist, candidates for NY-13 attempt to strike opponents from the ballot.

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="30" tiltdirection="left" variant="framed">Darializa was raised in a working class family. Her father is a truck driver. Her single mom is a case worker.&nbsp;Her mom struggled to make ends meet and to find a place where she’d have enough support to raise Darializa. They moved back to the Dominican Republic, where Darializa lived for the first year and a half of her life, and throughout Florida. Darializa even lived with her grandma in Venezuela while her mom tried to find her footing.&nbsp;Fourteen years ago, Darializa moved uptown to attend Columbia University. She has been here ever since.In the years since, Darializa has successfully fought ICE to release immigrants that were illegally detained, and to reunite families separated by ICE. Now, as s a PhD student at CUNY, she studies how the U.S. immigration system criminalizes Black immigrants from Latin America.<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="right" alignwidth="37.5" variant="framed">While working at Families for Freedom, she helped free <a href="https://theintercept.com/2019/05/13/customs-border-protection-profiling-airport/">Abdikar Mohamed</a>, a U.S. permanent resident from Somalia, from ICE detention. Abdikar was detained for one and a half years due to Trump’s 2017 “Muslim ban.”&nbsp;When ICE kidnapped her friend <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/22/nyregion/mahmoud-khalil-interview-trump.html">Mahmoud Khalil</a> outside his Columbia University apartment in 2025, Darializa got to work. She publicly <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2025/03/13/columbia-university-ice-detention-mahmoud-khalil/82316469007/">advocated</a> for his support, participated in protests outside Trump Tower, and arranged support for Mahmoud at court.As an investigator at a public defenders office in Harlem, Darializa provides legal aid to victims of police brutality. She travels across the district to support&nbsp; families on the worst day of their lives, and to collect evidence to keep innocent New Yorkers out of jail.Her work has taken her to many NYCHA developments: she knows firsthand how federal disinvestment in public housing has left thousands of Black and brown New Yorkers to live in unsafe and run-down apartments.<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="left" alignwidth="37.5" tiltdirection="left" variant="framed">Darializa is also an educator who has taught college courses at CUNY Lehman, Columbia, and NYU. While teaching sociology at CUNY Lehman, she noticed many Lehman students entered college without being able to read at the level they’d need to be successful.&nbsp;Part of this had to do with the conditions many of her working-class students faced at home: they missed class because their apartment flooded, or because they needed to pick up a shift at work. In other cases, it was&nbsp; because our elected officials have failed to fund and protect public education, from pre-K to college.&nbsp;This is why Darializa will fight to invest our tax dollars in programs that support children and their families, instead of spend billions to bomb foreign countries.She is an active member of her union, UAW Local 2325, and proud to be endorsed by UAW Region 9A. She is also a proud member of the NYC Democratic Socialists of America.&nbsp; Darializa’s campaign is 100% powered by the people: she will never take money from corporate PACs. Unlike Adriano Espaillat, she won’t take a dime from AIPAC or corporate real estate. Her leadership is accountable to working people, and rooted in a belief that a better world is possible for uptown and the Bronx.&nbsp;<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="30" tiltdirection="left" variant="framed">

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<h2>On Politics: The next AOC-style upset might be brewing uptown</h2>

<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

NYC Democratic Socialists of America

UAW Region 9A

Justice Democrats

Uptown Community Democrats

Inwood Indivisible

Jewish Voice for Peace Action

Former NY-16 Congressman

Jamaal Bowman

Muslim Democratic Club of New York

NYS ASSEMBLYMEMBER

Claire Valdez

NYC Councilmember

Chi Osse

NYS Senator

Jabari Brisport

NYS Assemblymember

Diana Moreno

Sarahana Shrestha

Emily Gallagher

Shahana Hanif

Sunrise Movement

Our Revolution

Track AIPAC

Council on American–Islamic Relations Action

Peace, Accountability, Leadership PAC

The Justice Coalition

Progressive Victory

US Campaign for Palestinian Rights Action

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<h4>Darializa knows our community is not for sale and that we deserve better — and she won’t stop organizing until that promise becomes reality.</h4>

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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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Everyday, we see more and more of our neighbors pushed out of our community because of rising costs and 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.

Abolish ICE

Babies, Not Bombs

Medicare for All

Housing for All

Quality Education

Our political system is corrupt: it rewards the wealthy elite, corporations, and political machines over working people.&nbsp;

Fighting Corporate Greed

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Healthcare is a human right: access to care should not depend on one’s employment, age, or income.&nbsp;The United States is the only country in the world that does not guarantee health care to everyone. We spend more on healthcare than any other country.&nbsp;As your Congresswoman, Darializa will fight for everyone – no matter their race, gender or sexuality – to receive high quality physical and mental healthcare without discrimination.&nbsp;Darializa will fight for Medicare for All: free, universal healthcare system with primary care, mental health services, substance abuse treatment, dental, vision, and hearing aids.Medicare for All also includes:&nbsp;<ul><li>Lower prescription costs&nbsp;</li><li>Reproductive care, including abortion</li><li>Long-term care for our seniors and people with disabilities</li><li>Gender affirming care for everyone, especially LGBTQ+ communities</li></ul>

Darializa will fight for Medicare for All: a free, universal system that covers primary and mental health care, dental, vision, hearing, reproductive care, long-term care, and lower prescription costs.

Medicare for All

For decades, both establishment Democrats and Republicans alike have used billions of our taxes to fund senseless wars abroad. The U.S. sends more than $3 billion to Israel in military aid each year. We spend $1 billion per day in the U.S. war in Iran.Meanwhile, more than 100,000 children in New York City’s public schools are homeless.We must stop funding the bombing of children and families overseas, and start funding the programs here at home that can support our children reaching their full potential instead.Darializa will fight to support our families with:<ul><li>Child tax credits ($800 per child)</li><li>Baby boxes with a mattress, clothing, and other basics for newborns&nbsp;</li><li>A federally-funded savings account for each child known as baby bonds</li><li>Free breakfast and afterschool programs</li><li>Paid family leave</li></ul>

Darializa will fight to divest the billions of taxpayer dollars we spend on senseless wars abroad, and invest those funds in child tax credits, baby bonds, and more.

Write a short blurb about an issue your campaign is highlighting. Try to keep the text a similar size between the various issue blurbs.

Housing is a fundamental human right: everyone deserves dignity and stability in their homes.&nbsp;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 raised, or they are teetering on the brink of eviction, barely able to make ends meet.&nbsp;We all deserve basic things like heat, hot water, lead-free paint, and homes free of roaches and rats. Darializa will fight to:&nbsp;PROTECT TENANTS&nbsp;&amp; HOMEOWNERS<ul><li>Create national protections for all tenants</li><li>Increase federal funding for rental vouchers like Section 8&nbsp;</li><li>Cap rent increases on existing units at 5% annually for large landlords</li><li>Prevent deed theft to help homeowners stay in their homes</li></ul>IMPROVE NYCHA<ul><li>Fully fund NYCHA to make decades-overdue investments&nbsp;</li><li>Protect NYCHA and ensure Section 9 public housing buildings are not converted to market-rate housing&nbsp;</li><li>Install cheaper, reliable and eco-friendly heat pumps and appliances&nbsp;</li></ul>BUILD HOUSING<ul><li>Create more affordable housing through programs like&nbsp; the Northern Manhattan Community Land Trust</li><li>Preventing deed theft to help homeowners remain in their homes</li></ul>

Darializa will fight to protect all tenants, fully fund Section 8, fully fund NYCHA, prevent deed theft, and build affordable housing.

As the daughter of Dominican immigrants, Darializa has seen firsthand how unnecessarily chaotic and complicated our immigration system can be. As a PhD student, she studies how this system criminalizes Afro-Latino and Black New Yorkers.Congress has given ICE 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> — larger than the entire national budget of many entire countries. This agency exists to control our communities, not to keep us safe. It was created in 2002: we can return to a world where it does not exist.&nbsp;Darializa will fight to:<ul><li>Abolish ICE and the deportation machine</li><li>Expand pathways to citizenship, including&nbsp; for DREAMers and undocumented immigrants</li><li>Mandating free legal representation for immigrants’ interactions with DHS, and to support them through the immigration process&nbsp;&nbsp;</li><li>Funding programs to ensure immigrants get free, quality imget free, quality immigration support&nbsp;</li><li>Enshrine in law protections for pre-schools, places of worship, and other sensitive sites</li></ul>

Darializa will fight to abolish the deportation machine, expand pathways to citizenship, secure free legal representation for immigrants, and more.

Darializa has been a student and taught at Columbia University and CUNY: she knows that our public schools are getting the short end of the stick.&nbsp;Trump's education agenda &nbsp; distorts the truth and excludes Black, Latino, and LBGTQ histories. He and his billionaire friends want to privatize the Department of Education and restrict academic freedom in higher education.&nbsp;Everyone has a right to free, quality public education,&nbsp; no matter their zip code. Darializa will fight to:OUR YOUNGEST LEARNERS<ul><li>Establish free universal childcare and Pre-K</li><li>Create more childcare centers in communities with too few options&nbsp;</li><li>Increase wages for early childhood educators</li><li>Expand access to Head Starts and Early Head Start</li></ul>K-12&nbsp;<ul><li>Fully fund our schools and programs for children with disability and kids living in poverty</li><li>Protect and expand students’ civil rights especially for undocumented, Black and brown, and LGBTQ+ students&nbsp;</li><li>Keep our public schools open, halt charter school expansion, and hold charter schools accountable&nbsp;</li><li>Increase wages and improve working conditions for all educators and school staff</li></ul>HIGHER EDUCATION<ul><li>Make public colleges tuition-free&nbsp;</li><li>Cancel $1.7 trillion of student debt</li><li>Create quality certification and training programs for teachers at public universities&nbsp;</li><li>Protect academic freedom, including free speech</li><li>Defend international workers and students from the federal government’s crackdown&nbsp;</li><li>Oppose cuts to critical federal funding for medical research that will save lives</li></ul>

Darializa will fight for our right to free, quality public education from childcare to college. She will support and defend teachers, graduate students, and other education workers.

Quality Education

On Day 1, I will sign onto the:<ul><li>Homes Act to build deeply affordable public housing, cooperatives, and community land trusts with rent caps and other protections for tenants&nbsp;</li></ul><ul><li>Tenants Right to Organize Act so renters receiving housing vouchers are protected from landlord retaliation</li></ul><ul><li>Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act to build union density and give everyone who wants to form a union the fair chance to exercise that right </li></ul><ul><li>Raise the Wage Act to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25&nbsp; to $15 an hour</li></ul><ul><li>Green New Deal to transition to a 100% clean energy economy with high-wage union jobs and a livable world for everyone</li></ul><ul><li>American Dream &amp; Promise Act to provide a path to citizenship for millions of DREAMers and immigrants with Temporary Protective Status (TPS)&nbsp;</li></ul><ul><li>Child Care for Every Community Act to create universal child care nationwide</li></ul><ul><li>Social Security Expansion Act to increase benefits so our seniors live in dignity </li></ul><ul><li>Prescription Drug Price Relief Act so corporations can’t charge Americans more for a drug in the U.S. than they would overseas&nbsp;</li></ul><ul><li>Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act and Equal Tax Act so millionaires and billionaires pay their far share</li></ul><ul><li>College for All Act to guarantee tuition-free community college for working class students</li></ul><ul><li>Block the Bombs Act to ban the U.S. from sending weapons to Israel that are used to bomb Gaza&nbsp;&nbsp; </li></ul><ul><li>Medicare for All Act so everyone has health insurance including dental, vision, and hearing aids</li></ul>

Darializa will sign onto these bills to secure housing as a human right, universal healthcare, union protections, a $15 minimum wage and more.

Day 1 Agenda

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Our political system is corrupt: it rewards the wealthy elite, corporations, and political machines over working people.&nbsp;The federal government allows big businesses to flood our elections with unlimited dark money. It looks the other way when companies inflate prices on basic necessities like <a href="https://groundworkcollaborative.org/news/new-research-from-groundwork-collaborative-shows-link-between-price-hikes-monopoly-and-corporate-greed/">groceries</a> to increase their profits.&nbsp;With Trump and his billionaire friends in power, the threat is at a higher level than ever before.&nbsp;It’s time to reclaim our power and put an end to this corruption. Our community deserves a leader for the people who is powered by the people — nothing less.Darializa will never take a dime from corporate PACs. She will fight to:&nbsp;<ul><li>Criminalize corporations that price gouge consumers</li><li>Break up monopolies like Facebook and Amazon</li><li>Ban super PACs money from our elections&nbsp;</li><li>Prohibit Congress members from trading stocks</li></ul>

Darializa will never take money from corporate PACs, and will fight against monopolies, price gouging, and super PACs.

Fighting Corporate Greed

As the cost of rent, groceries and utilities go up and up and up, the amount on our paychecks stay the same. That’s because our leaders in Washington are bankrolled by the same billionaires and corporations raising our prices every day.&nbsp;We need leaders who reject corporate greed and their lobbyists, and fight for working people across our district. As your Congresswoman, Darializa will fight for workers to have power over their bosses. Darializa will fight to:BUILD UNION DENSITY<ul><li>Pass the PRO Act, so that everyone who wants a union can form one&nbsp;</li><li>Make it easier for workers to secure a first collective bargaining agreement after forming their union</li><li>End attacks on federal workers and their unions</li><li>Fully fund the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to hold union-busting bosses accountable</li><li>Ensure that federal funding isn't going to union busting companies </li></ul>KEEP MONEY IN YOUR POCKET<ul><li>Raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour&nbsp;</li><li>Enshrine cost of living adjustments, paid sick and paid family leave in federal law&nbsp;</li><li>Establish a universal basic income&nbsp;</li><li>Fund social security and secure pensions for all&nbsp;</li><li>Create a four-day 32-hour work week with no loss in pay</li></ul>CREATE JOBS FOR ALL<ul><li>Establish federal jobs guarantee to ensure those able to work can find employment&nbsp;</li><li>Issue a federal moratorium on AI data centers to ensure the technology benefits workers, not just tech oligarchs&nbsp;</li></ul>

Darializa will fight to protection workers' rights, increase union density, raise the minimum wage, fund social security, to create and protect job opportunities, and more.