When Zohran Mamdani won the New York City mayoral race last fall, he proved that socialism could win citywide, even against a well-funded establishment opponent and a media-enabled red-baiting campaign. In the wake of Mamdani’s victory, a new cohort of democratic socialist challengers is looking to build on that momentum.

Darializa Avila Chevalier is one of them. A Harlem-based organizer, Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) member, and former organizing lead for Mamdani’s campaign in Upper Manhattan, she’s challenging four-term incumbent Adriano Espaillat in New York’s Thirteenth Congressional District. The largely working-class and immigrant district went heavily for Mamdani in both the primary and general elections, and Avila Chevalier is betting its residents are ready for the same politics in Congress.

Avila Chevalier cut her teeth as a student activist at Columbia University, where she was involved with Students for Justice in Palestine. After college, she organized with Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100) against mass incarceration and unjust police practices, worked with immigrant justice groups to oppose family separation and inhumane detention, and helped organize the Columbia Palestine solidarity encampment in 2024. She’s currently a PhD candidate in sociology at the City University of New York (CUNY) and works at the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem.