New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has thrown his weight behind a Democratic Socialists of America candidate who once called Joe Biden a "rapist" and a "war criminal," wiped her hands on an American flag, and attacked Bernie Sanders for insufficient radicalism, and the move is splitting the Democratic Party in the city wide open.
Mamdani endorsed Darializa Avila Chevalier's primary challenge against five-term incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat in the northern Manhattan and Bronx 13th Congressional District, the New York Post reported. The June 23 primary will test whether the mayor can extend his political reach beyond City Hall, and whether Democratic voters in upper Manhattan want the kind of candidate Avila Chevalier represents.
State Democratic Party Chairman Jay Jacobs did not mince words about the endorsement.
"I think it's a mistake. When you have a good incumbent, stick with him. Espaillat is an excellent congressman."
Jacobs said he has heard from voters alarmed by the mayor's decision to target a sitting Democratic congressman. That alarm is well-founded, and the reasons go beyond ordinary intra-party squabbling.
Avila Chevalier's social media trail reads like a catalog of contempt for the country she wants to represent in Congress. In 2020, when Biden ran for president, she called the Democratic nominee a "rapist" and "war criminal." She attacked Sanders, hardly a moderate, for his "liberal Zionism" after the Vermont senator voted "present" on Israeli military funding.
And in 2019, she posted online: "I forgot to get napkins so I just wiped my hand on the American flag behind me," accompanied by a smiling emoji.
She has also, the Post reported, "blasted cops" and "establishment Democrats" in social media posts. This is the candidate the mayor of the largest city in America chose to elevate over a sitting congressman from his own party.
For voters who expect a baseline of respect for national symbols, law enforcement, and democratic norms from people seeking federal office, Avila Chevalier's record is not a close call. The question is why Mamdani chose her, and what it reveals about his broader ambitions.
Sources told the Post that Mamdani's endorsement is "part of a long-term effort by him and fellow socialists to take control of the Democratic Party." Campaign consultant Evan Roth Smith framed the stakes plainly.
"In New York City, it's a civil war in the Democratic Party. The 13th District is an early experiment on how far Mamdani's popularity goes."
Roth Smith described the race as a "test case" and noted Mamdani's long-range thinking. "He's going to be mayor for four years and maybe eight. They believe in the long game," Roth Smith said, adding that Mamdani wants more representatives in "Albany and Congress" who are on "his team."
The 13th District is not the only front. Mamdani is also backing Assemblywoman Claire Valdez, a DSA member, for an open seat in the 7th District covering waterfront neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens. Outgoing longtime Rep. Nydia Velázquez endorsed Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso against Valdez in that race. And in the 10th District, spanning brownstone Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan, Mamdani gave his nod to former City Comptroller Brad Lander over incumbent Rep. Dan Goldman.
The Post described the 7th and 10th districts as DSA-friendly territory. But the 13th District is different, and the mayor's willingness to challenge Espaillat there signals that no incumbent Democrat in New York is safe from a socialist primary if Mamdani decides to make a move.
Jay Jacobs, who leads the state party, offered the sharpest public criticism. He argued that Democrats cannot afford internal warfare heading into a general election cycle.
"We should not be fomenting dissent in the primaries when we have so much at stake in the general election."
Jacobs also characterized the endorsement as a power play. "It's an effort by Mamdani to flex his muscles in the city," he said. "We'll see how that turns out."
Jacobs said he has "heard from a lot of people in the Hispanic community and in general who are upset about him going against Espaillat." That detail matters. Espaillat, a five-term incumbent, has deep roots in the district. Mamdani's decision to back a challenger there, rather than in friendlier DSA territory, suggests the mayor is willing to risk alienating core Democratic constituencies to advance the socialist wing's agenda.
It is worth noting that Espaillat endorsed Andrew Cuomo in the mayoral Democratic primary, then switched to Mamdani after Mamdani won the nomination. Whether the endorsement of Avila Chevalier carries a whiff of political payback, or is purely ideological, the Post's reporting leaves open. Either way, the effect is the same: a sitting mayor is trying to unseat a loyal party member in favor of a candidate whose public statements would disqualify her from serious consideration in most districts in America.
Mamdani's track record of broken promises during his first 100 days in office raises a separate question: whether the mayor has the political capital to deliver for his chosen candidates, or whether he is overextending.
Roth Smith noted that Mamdani did not get all of the tax hikes he wanted from Governor Kathy Hochul and the state Legislature in this year's budget negotiations. That setback suggests limits to the mayor's influence in Albany, even with a friendly Legislature. Extending that influence into congressional primaries is a bigger lift, and one that could backfire if voters in the 13th District decide they prefer a proven incumbent to a DSA insurgent with a trail of inflammatory social media posts.
Mamdani has already seen the limits of his endorsement power. His handpicked candidate was defeated decisively in a recent Greenwich Village council race, a result that should give pause to anyone assuming the mayor's backing guarantees victory.
His tendency to make bold public gestures and then quietly retreat is also well-documented. The mayor scaled back his signature promise on city-owned grocery stores after conceding the program would only guarantee lower prices on a limited selection. He has dodged questions about national Democratic Party dynamics when pressed. And he sought to repair relations with a wealthy critic after a "Tax the Rich" stunt drew backlash, a sequence that suggests the mayor's public radicalism often outruns his willingness to follow through.
Strip away the insider maneuvering, and the picture is straightforward. The mayor of New York City looked at a candidate who called a sitting Democratic president a "rapist," mocked the American flag, attacked police, and found Bernie Sanders insufficiently left-wing, and decided she was the person who should represent northern Manhattan and the Bronx in Congress.
That tells you everything about where the Democratic Socialists of America want to take the Democratic Party. It also tells you what kind of candidates the party establishment will have to fight if it wants to remain a viable national coalition rather than a vehicle for the furthest-left fringe.
Jacobs is right that fomenting primary wars when Democrats face tough general elections is reckless. But the deeper problem is not the timing. It is the kind of candidate Mamdani chose to back. A challenger who treats the flag as a napkin and the party's own recent nominees as criminals is not a serious candidate for federal office. She is a statement, and the statement is that the socialist wing of the Democratic Party has no interest in governing, only in purging.
Democratic voters in the 13th District will decide on June 23 whether that is the direction they want to go. The rest of the country should be watching closely.
When a party's leaders start endorsing candidates who despise the country's symbols, smear its presidents, and dismiss its institutions, the problem is no longer a "civil war." It is a surrender, and the voters who still believe in those things are the ones left holding the bill.
