Darializa Avila Chevalier

Darializa Avila Chevalier is a community organizer and doctoral candidate at City University of New York running for the Democratic Party nomination to The U.S. House to represent New York's 13th congressional district, which encompasses Harlem and The Bronx. The district is currently represented by 71 year-old Rep. Adriano Espaillat. She declared candidacy for the Democratic primary scheduled on June 23, 2026. At 32 years old she would be one of the youngest members of Congress.

Early life and career

Chevalier is Afro-Latina and was born and raised in Florida by Dominican immigrant parents, later moving to New York City as a teenager. Her maternal grandfather was a member of the resistance movement against Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo and his successor Joaquín Balaguer. She organized the successful removal of Central Park statue dedicated to 19th-century gynecologist J. Marion Sims who experimented painful surgical techniques on enslaved women without consent or anesthesia, though he did administer anesthesia to the white women he treated later.

As a student at Columbia University, Chevalier was an illustrator for the Columbia Daily Spectator and an organizer involved with Students for Justice in Palestine. After graduation in 2016 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Middle Eastern Studies, she began organizing with BYP100. In 2018, the group's activism and advocacy led to the successful removal of the Central Park statue dedicated to 19th-century gynecologist J. Marion Sims, who experimented with painful surgical techniques on enslaved women without consent or anesthesia, despite later administering anesthesia to the white women he treated. Chevalier and three other Black women protested in front of the statue dressed in blood-stained hospital gowns, reading passages from Sims's autobiography, medical journals, and other historical material which highlighted his dehumanization of enslaved women.

As an alumni she continued to lead pro-Palestinian demonstrations at the university, activity which led to her being doxed on the pro-Israel website Canary Mission. In 2025, she wrote an op-ed in the USA Today advocating for the release from arrest, detention, and planned deportation of Mahmoud Khalil.

Chevalier is currently a doctoral student in sociology at the City University of New York, studying "the ways Black immigrants from Latin America are impacted by the US criminal system and deportation."

In 2025, Chevalier was an organizing lead on Zohran Mamdani's successful mayoral campaign.

2026 Congressional Campaign

New York's 14th Congressional district is one of the most Democratic districts in the country. Chevalier has been endorsed by progressive groups such as Justice Democrats, New York Democratic Socialists of America, and Jewish Voice for Peace Action. She has also been endorsed by former Rep. Jamaal Bowman and New Policy PAC, a group founded by Josh Paul (U.S. official) after he resigned from the Biden Administration in protest over continued arms transfers to Israel for its war in Gaza.

Chevalier has strongly criticized the incumbent Espaillat's support of Israel, and for accepting campaign funds from AIPAC.

Personal life

Chevalier is a member of the New York City Democratic Socialists of America, and credits the black radical tradition — specifically the writings of Angela Davis and Asata Shakur tradition — for leading her to these views.

She now works as an investigator at the public defender legal organization Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, where she is a member of the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys - United Auto Workers Local 2325.