Israel, US-hating Mamdani-backed Dem wins NY primary

The district’s heavy Democratic lean makes Darializa Avila Chevalier the overwhelming favorite in November’s general election.

By World Israel News Staff

A far-left democratic socialist candidate backed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani defeated a five-term incumbent in Tuesday’s Democratic primary, clearing a path that is likely to send her to Congress via one of the safest Democratic seats in the country.

Darializa Avila Chevalier, 32, unseated Rep. Adriano Espaillat in New York’s 13th Congressional District, a heavily Democratic district spanning parts of upper Manhattan and the Bronx.

Because the district has never elected a Republican and is overwhelmingly blue, Avila Chevalier is now widely expected to win the general election in November and head to Washington as a first-term lawmaker.

Avila Chevalier has a long history of of inflammatory social media posts and reposts that resurfaced during the campaign. On her now-deleted X account, Avila Chevalier made comments expressing hostility toward the United States, Israel and white Americans.

Referring to the U.S. in one post, she wrote that “this country is an f—ing disgrace,” and added in another: “I forgot to get napkins so I just wiped my hand on the American flag behind me.”

Avila Chevalier, a convert to Islam and a vocal critic of Israel, reposted messages stating that Israel has no right to exist and embraced broader far-left positions including abolishing the U.S.’s borders, prisons and police.

On October 8, 2023 — one day after the massacre in southern Israel — Avila Chevalier attended a pro-Palestinian rally in New York City that celebrated the slaughter. She has also used social media to mock Arab and black men who date white women, writing that they were “fetishizing ugly colonizer women.”

The candidate also aimed vitriol at prominent Democrats. She labeled former President Joe Biden a “rapist” and a “war criminal,” and attacked Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), one of the country’s best-known left-wing politicians, as a “liberal Zionist,” despite Sanders’ frequent criticism of Israel.

Mamdani, who endorsed Avila Chevalier despite the controversy surrounding her online history, declined to condemn the posts when asked about them by reporters.
“In Congress, she’ll take on corporate greed, bad landlords, and D.C.’s broken political system,” Mamdani told CNN in a recent interview.

“At a time when power is concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, Darializa will fight in Congress for New York City’s working families. She’s the champion we need for a city New Yorkers can actually afford.”