New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has thrown his weight behind a Democratic Socialists of America insurgent who called Joe Biden a "rapist" and a "war criminal," bragged about wiping her hands on the American flag, and attacked police, and the endorsement is now splitting the Democratic Party in New York wide open ahead of a June 23 primary.
Darializa Avila Chevalier is challenging five-term incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat in the northern Manhattan and Bronx 13th Congressional District. Mamdani's decision to back her over a sitting member of his own party's congressional delegation drew sharp criticism from State Democratic Party Chairman Jay Jacobs, who called the move a flat-out mistake.
The fight matters beyond one House seat. Mamdani is not limiting himself to a single race. He has also endorsed Assemblywoman Claire Valdez, a DSA member, for an open seat in the 7th District covering waterfront neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens. And he gave his nod to former City Comptroller Brad Lander over incumbent Rep. Dan Goldman in the 10th District, which covers brownstone Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan. The mayor, in other words, is running a coordinated campaign to install far-left allies across New York's congressional map.
The most immediate problem for Mamdani is the record of the candidate he chose. The New York Post reported that Avila Chevalier has blasted cops and establishment Democrats in social media posts that read less like political commentary and more like an activist's fever diary.
In 2020, when Biden ran for the Oval Office, Avila Chevalier labeled him a "rapist" and "war criminal." She attacked Sen. Bernie Sanders, no one's idea of a right-winger, for his "liberal Zionism" after Sanders voted "present" on Israeli military funding. She called the broader political system "a f***ing disgrace."
And in a 2019 post, she wrote: "I forgot to get napkins so I just wiped my hand on the American flag behind me," accompanied by a smiling face emoji.
That is the candidate the mayor of the largest city in America decided to champion.
Jay Jacobs, the state party chairman, did not mince words. He told reporters that Mamdani's endorsement was reckless at a moment when Democrats can least afford internal warfare.
"I think it's a mistake. When you have a good incumbent, stick with him."
Jacobs described Espaillat as "an excellent congressman" and said the backlash from the party's base has been swift. The chairman's assessment of the political damage was blunt.
"I've heard from a lot people in the Hispanic community and in general who are upset about him going against Espaillat."
That line is worth pausing on. Espaillat represents a heavily Latino district. Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist, is now actively working to unseat a Hispanic incumbent with deep roots in the community, and doing so by backing a candidate whose public statements suggest contempt for the American flag, the Democratic Party's own recent presidential nominee, and law enforcement. The political optics are not subtle.
Mamdani's broader pattern of contradictions between his stated principles and his actual moves has already drawn scrutiny. This endorsement adds another layer.
Jacobs framed the stakes in terms of the general election, where Democrats face competitive races across New York.
"We should not be fomenting dissent in the primaries when we have so much at stake in the general election."
Campaign consultant Evan Roth Smith offered a different read. He described what is happening in New York City as a "civil war in the Democratic Party" and cast the 13th District race as a test of the mayor's reach beyond City Hall.
"The 13th District is an early experiment on how far Mamdani's popularity goes."
Roth Smith added that Mamdani and his allies are thinking in terms of years, not news cycles: "He's going to be mayor for four years and maybe eight. They believe in the long game."
That framing is revealing. It suggests the endorsement of Avila Chevalier is not a one-off gesture of solidarity but part of a deliberate strategy to seed Congress with DSA-aligned members who will owe their seats to the mayor's political operation. Jacobs seemed to agree, calling the move "an effort by Mamdani to flex his muscles in the city." He added dryly: "We'll see how that turns out."
The relationship between Mamdani and Espaillat already has a complicated history. Espaillat endorsed Andrew Cuomo in the mayoral Democratic primary. After Mamdani won the nomination, and then defeated Cuomo in the general election in the 13th District, Espaillat switched his endorsement to Mamdani. Now the mayor is repaying that loyalty by trying to end Espaillat's career.
The 13th District race is the most explosive of the three, but the other two endorsements fill out the picture. In the 7th District, Mamdani is backing Assemblywoman Claire Valdez, a DSA member, for the open seat left by retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez. Velázquez herself endorsed Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso against Valdez, a sign that even within the party's progressive wing, Mamdani's slate is not universally welcome.
In the 10th District, Mamdani chose Brad Lander over incumbent Dan Goldman. The Post described the 7th and 10th districts as the so-called "Commie Corridor," a label that captures the ideological tilt of the candidates Mamdani favors.
Taken together, the three endorsements amount to a systematic attempt to move New York's congressional delegation sharply to the left, replacing incumbents and establishment-backed candidates with socialist-aligned allies. This is not coalition politics. It is a factional takeover bid.
Mamdani's willingness to skip events that matter to mainstream New Yorkers while investing political capital in far-left primary challengers tells voters where his priorities actually sit.
The timing of the endorsements is also notable. Mamdani reportedly did not get all of the tax hikes he wanted from Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state Legislature in this year's budget negotiations. That setback may be fueling a parallel strategy: if the mayor cannot move Albany to the left through negotiation, perhaps he can build a bloc of congressional allies who will amplify pressure from Washington.
The mayor's fiscal record has already generated controversy at home, including proposed cuts to veterans services that drew bipartisan anger.
Whether that strategy works depends on how voters in these districts respond. Espaillat is a five-term incumbent with deep community ties. Avila Chevalier's social media history, calling a sitting Democratic president a rapist, mocking the American flag, attacking the party's left flank for being insufficiently radical, may not play well outside the DSA's base.
And Mamdani himself is not universally popular. His budget battles, his policy reversals on property taxes, and his confrontational posture toward the city's own institutions have created friction that extends well beyond the Republican opposition.
Jacobs is right that this is a mistake, but not just a tactical one. The endorsement of Avila Chevalier reveals something deeper about the direction Mamdani wants to take the Democratic Party. He is not looking for candidates who can win general elections or represent their communities broadly. He is looking for ideological soldiers who share his worldview and will answer to his political machine.
A candidate who calls the sitting president of her own party a rapist and a war criminal, who mocks the flag, and who attacks Bernie Sanders from the left is not a serious governing figure. She is a protest candidate elevated by a mayor who sees the Democratic Party not as a coalition to be managed but as an institution to be captured.
The voters of the 13th District will have their say on June 23. So will the voters of the 7th and 10th. The question is whether New York Democrats will recognize what Mamdani is doing before the primary ballots are counted, or whether they will wake up the morning after and wonder how their party's congressional delegation got hijacked by City Hall.
Tensions between the mayor and the city's rank-and-file institutions are nothing new. Even NYPD officers have faced consequences for criticizing Mamdani publicly. The pattern is consistent: loyalty to the mayor's agenda is rewarded, and dissent is punished.
When the chairman of your own state party calls your endorsement a mistake and voters in the community you claim to represent are upset, the problem is not messaging. The problem is the product.
