Democratic House candidates backed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani won their primaries in three Big Apple districts, ousting incumbent congressmen.<\/p>\n
Darializa Avila Chevalier, a doctoral student and community organizer who worked on Mamdani\u2019s campaign and was backed by the Democratic Socialists of America, beat Rep. Adriano Espaillat in the Democratic primary on Tuesday for the 13th Congressional District. Espaillat was the first formerly undocumented immigrant elected to Congress.<\/p>\n
Former New York City comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander won the Democratic primary in the 10th Congressional District, ousting Rep. Dan Goldman. Lander did not formally receive a DSA endorsement, but his race focused on his and Goldman\u2019s differences on U.S. policy toward Israel and Gaza.<\/p>\n
New York State Assembly member Claire Valdez won the 7th Congressional District\u2019s Democratic primary against Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, who was endorsed by retiring Rep. Nydia M. Vel\u00e1zquez. Valdez had portrayed herself as a better representative for the DSA stronghold district than longtime progressive leader Reynoso, despite both candidates\u2019 nearly identical ideological views.<\/p>\n
Because all three districts are heavily Democratic, these primary nominees are expected to win the general elections in November.<\/p>\n
Avila Chevalier\u2019s win was the biggest upset of Tuesday\u2019s primaries, as Espaillat received support via outside spending on his behalf, while labeling her as an out-of-touch transplant to the area. She argued that Espaillat, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus chairman, had failed to deliver for his mostly working-class constituents in Upper Manhattan and the Bronx since he was first elected in 2016.<\/p>\n
Her candidacy was not without controversy. Avila Chevalier had deleted a previous Twitter account in which she posted calls for abolishing police, borders and prisons, in addition to seizing private property, nationalizing major industries and saying Israel doesn\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n
For example, Avila Chevalier reposted a tweet from September 2021 that read, \u201cA world without borders \u2014 just like a world without prisons or police \u2014 is possible, necessary, and the only moral way forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Avila Chevalier told CNN a few weeks ago regarding her old posts, \u201cMy opponent wants to live in the past. He is re-litigating social media posts from half a decade ago, and continuing to champion an outdated politics that fails to serve our people. I have grown considerably since in the years since these tweets, and I am focused on our community and our community\u2019s future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mamdani repeated his support for Avila Chevalier at the time, telling CNN, \u201cIn Congress, she\u2019ll take on corporate greed, bad landlords and D.C.\u2019s broken political system. At a time when power is concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, Darializa will fight in Congress for New York City\u2019s working families. She\u2019s the champion we need for a city New Yorkers can actually afford.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Democratic House candidates backed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani won their primaries in three Big Apple…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276866,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[7943,106340,607,9,24,55,54,12,56],"class_list":["post-276865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-fox45-news","tag-natdeskpublishalert","tag-national-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-news","tag-ny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}