Mamdani backs Chevalier in Upper Manhattan challenge to Espaillat

Zohran Mamdani’s endorsement of Darializa Avila Chevalier pushed a long-simmering Upper Manhattan congressional primary into a sharper fight over the future of New York’s left. The mayor threw his support behind the democratic socialist challenger to Rep. Adriano Espaillat, calling it his final congressional endorsement before the June 23 primary and signaling that the race has become more than a local intraparty contest.

Mamdani said he backed Chevalier because he wanted “a new generation of leadership” focused on working-class struggles. The move aligned him with a challenger who has already been embraced by the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America and by Justice Democrats, and who launched her challenge on November 20, 2025, after working as an organizing lead for Upper Manhattan and the Bronx on Mamdani’s mayoral campaign.

Chevalier’s campaign has sought to make the race a referendum on Gaza, Israel politics, rent, and grocery prices. She has criticized Espaillat for taking donations from AIPAC and argued that he should not be voting to fund overseas wars while New Yorkers face rising costs at home. Her profile has also been shaped by her work as a community organizer, her role in Columbia University encampment activism, and her ties to public-defense and tenants-rights work.

Espaillat, who has represented New York’s 13th Congressional District since 2017, answered by stressing both his political standing and the breadth of his support. He said Mamdani “is entitled to support the candidate of his choice,” but added that “one endorsement does not make a race.” He pointed to backing from Gov. Kathy Hochul, Attorney General Letitia James, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, labor unions, and advocacy groups, as well as support from the Congressional Black Caucus’s political arm and the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

The money race has only deepened the stakes. Latino Victory Fund and BOLD America had each committed six-figure independent expenditures to help Espaillat, underscoring how much outside investment is flowing into a district that spans Upper Manhattan and part of the Bronx. The contest now pits a Mamdani-aligned democratic socialist challenge against one of New York’s most established Democratic incumbents, and it has exposed the strain between insurgent left politics and the party’s institutional wing.

NYC-DSA’s formal endorsement of Chevalier on January 22, 2026, came with 82% support in the membership vote before moving to the Citywide Leadership Committee. With Mamdani now in her corner, the race has become a proxy battle over whether that movement can dislodge a veteran Democrat who has built a durable coalition across New York politics.