Candidate briefing
Darializa Avila Chevalier is the 2026 Democratic nominee for New York’s 13th Congressional District, covering Upper Manhattan and part of the Bronx. A Columbia graduate and CUNY doctoral student, she organized with Families for Freedom and worked as an investigator at a Harlem public defender’s office.
On June 23 she defeated Rep. Adriano Espaillat, 49.5% to 45.7%. She is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.
She has also taken a principled stand in the street. In September 2026 she joined about 250 New Yorkers, including fellow elected officials and candidates, in a peaceful sit-in near the United Nations organized by Jewish Voice for Peace to protest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s General Assembly address and U.S. military aid to Israel during the war in Gaza. Police arrested dozens of protesters who refused to leave the street, Avila Chevalier among them, and she was later released. “I refuse to allow a war criminal to roam the streets of our city unchallenged,” she said.
She faces Republican Manual Williams on November 3. DSA, Justice Democrats, Our Revolution, the Working Families Party, Indivisible and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee have endorsed her.
Why Political Revolution supports her: she beat an entrenched incumbent with a door-to-door campaign rooted in immigrant and tenant organizing.