By New York Post (Opinion) | Created at 2026-06-18 22:47:43 | Updated at 2026-06-19 04:13:44
5 hours ago
Darializa Avila Chevalier was endorsed by Zohran Mamdani.
Robert Miller for NY Post
The DSA is hoping to expand its influence in New York’s primaries next week, but it’s got a big problem: It doesn’t seem to care about the people it claims to represent.
The Democratic Socialists of America playbook is simple — and dangerous: claim to speak for minority communities, push an agenda those communities never asked for and leave them with no voice in their own neighborhoods.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in NY-13, a district of traditionally black and Hispanic neighborhoods — including most of Manhattan above 100th Street on the West Side, and above 98th Street on the East Side, plus a small part of The Bronx — that’s now seeing dramatic demographic changes.
Since 2000, Central Harlem’s black population alone plunged by over 25%.
Over the years, the largely left-of-center district has re-elected Democratic Rep. Adriano Espaillat handily. But this year he’s being challenged by DSA member Darializa Avila Chevalier, who aligns with the group’s most extreme priorities.
Polling reveals two truths: First, New Yorkers of color aren’t keen on what the DSA wants to do to us.
Second, support for the DSA is not being driven by the working-class blacks and Hispanics it claims to represent.
Its “movement” in NY-13 is being fueled disproportionately by people it usually calls “gentrifiers” — newer, wealthier and whiter voters whose priorities differ sharply from those of longtime residents.
This is all happening while local working families of color have watched their rents and other vital costs soar, driving a sense that the communities they built are becoming unlivable for them.
Meanwhile, the DSA — which claims to focus on affordability — is powered by political forces connected to the very displacement pressures that have made it worse.
Espaillat leads in the polls 35% to 27%, but the story isn’t the horserace; it’s what’s behind those numbers — the fact that Chevalier’s political competitiveness is driven nearly entirely by white voters.
Indeed, her 50% favorability among whites plummets to just 25% among blacks and less than 33% among Hispanics.
These figures track with the popularity of her stated positions.
For example, she has unambiguously stated that she doesn’t want to just defund the police but abolish them.
She’d also do away with prisons, releasing every single dangerous criminal with no one to protect vulnerable communities facing gun violence, gang activity and other public-safety failures.
Nearly 70% of her district’s Democrats disagree with her and the DSA that police should be eliminated; nearly 65% disagree that prisoners, without exception, should be released into our communities.
DSA members also strongly oppose a parent’s right to choose the most appropriate public schools for their child’s needs, including charters or other alternatives.
Chevalier and her fellow activists refuse to embrace the dozens of schools creating positive outcomes in the district, and the fact that more could flourish with additional support.
This, too, is at odds with the priorities of the black and Hispanic families they claim to represent: A full 72% of Democrats believe a parent’s freedom to choose their child’s public school is critical.
And notably, it’s white constituents pushing that figure down: Nearly 90% of black respondents and over 80% of Hispanics want public-school options.
If the DSA professes to speak for communities of color, why does it continually ignore us?
These out-of-step positions are just the tip of the iceberg for Chevalier, whose years of incendiary remarks have put her on defense.
Yes, she’s claimed vaguely to have evolved, but it’s unclear how.
Two years ago, then-Rep. Jamaal Bowman, a DSA darling, lost a primary after his black constituents learned how far out of step he was with their views on public safety, education and economic investment in their communities.
His support from blacks plummeted because of an honest conversation we helped lead that emphasized how far apart communities of color and the DSA are on these core issues.
Our communities don’t want outside political movements using us to justify their extreme agenda while denying us control, voice and agency in our own neighborhoods.
With more than 35% of the voters we polled still undecided ahead of Tuesday’s primary, it’s more important than ever for them to hear the truth.
Darius Jones leads the National Black Empowerment Action Fund.
