Darializa Avila Chevalier is a 32-year-old far-left activist who works in the public defender's office and belongs to the Democratic Socialists of America, the same as NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani. On Tuesday night, she beat five-term Congressman Adriano Espaillat — the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus — in the New York 13th District Democratic primary, 49% to 46%.
Republicans didn't do that. Democrats did.
Espaillat had every establishment endorsement a Democrat could want: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Governor Kathy Hochul, State Attorney General Letitia James, City Council Speaker Julie Menin, the Congressional Black Caucus, and the state AFL-CIO. BOLD America, a super PAC that received funding from both the Congressional Hispanic Caucus's own super PAC and AIPAC's United Democracy Project, dropped $2.9 million defending him. The 71-year-old incumbent was the first former undocumented immigrant ever elected to Congress and the first Dominican American in the House.
None of it mattered.
Mayor Mamdani — 34 years old and six months into office — endorsed Chevalier despite initially promising to support Espaillat. Justice Democrats backed her on the airwaves. And the results at 10:38 p.m. made it official: the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus got fired by his own voters in upper Manhattan and the Bronx.
Espaillat wasn't the only casualty. All three Mamdani-backed candidates swept their races Tuesday night. Former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander crushed Rep. Dan Goldman in the 10th District, 62% to 38% — a race called at 9 p.m. State representative Claire Valdez demolished Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso in the open 7th District, 57% to 34%. Three for three.
Avila Chevalier's campaign was built on attacking Espaillat from the left. "Where is our congressman when ICE is kidnapping his constituents?" she asked in a campaign video. "We live in the richest country in the history of the world." Her deleted social media posts surfaced during the race — calling Joe Biden a "rapist," writing "Israel doesn't exist," and advocating for abolishing ICE, prisons, and police.
When confronted about those posts, she offered what passes for Democratic accountability these days: "My values have always been my values... my understanding of how to approach the systems has grown." Translation: she still believes all of it, she's just learned not to say it out loud on Twitter.
The establishment spent $2.9 million and stacked every endorsement in the rolodex behind a five-term incumbent who chairs a caucus — and lost to a 32-year-old socialist who thinks prisons shouldn't exist. Hakeem Jeffries put his name behind Espaillat and Goldman. Both lost. The Minority Leader went 0 for 2 on election night in his own city.
Mamdani told supporters his endorsed candidates were "on the front lines" of showing Democrats must fight "for a vision that reckons with" how "working people were left behind a long time before that." The Washington Post reported that Mamdani views these 2026 endorsements as a test run for 2028. He's not building a faction. He's building a takeover.
The Democratic Party just watched its Congressional Hispanic Caucus chairman — a man who came to this country as an undocumented immigrant, served five terms, and built a career on progressive credentials — get tossed out for not being progressive enough. The party of the "big tent" has a very specific dress code now, and the people writing it think cops and prisons are optional.
