Editor’s Note: The following is an extended version of the story that appears in our latest print edition.

The NY-13 Congressional Democratic primary looks tight with incumbent Congressman Adriano Espaillat battling leading progressive challenger, Darializa Avila Chevalier. According to predictionedge.com, Espaillat shows a polling average of 38.5% to Avila Chevalier’s 33.5%. Between March 25 and 30, Upswing Research showed Espaillat leading in the race with 42% to Avila Chevalier’s 28%, but between June 3 and 9, Data for Progress showed Avila Chevalier leading with 39% to Espaillat’s 35%.

 

Though the majority of the district falls in Northern Manhattan and Harlem, it also covers some or all of the Bronx neighborhoods of Kingsbridge, Kingsbridge Heights, Bedford Park, University Heights, Morris Heights, Fordham Manor and Fordham Heights.

 

Espaillat, whose first congressional term began in January 2017, said his latest re-election campaign is focused on immigration, affordability and democracy. As reported, the congressman had visited Federal Plaza courthouse in southern Manhattan, along with his colleague, Rep. Nydia Velázquez (NY-7), who represents parts of Brooklyn, in attempts to perform oversight on the detention of immigrants detained there.

 

His campaign says he knows the immigrant situation first-hand, being the first formerly undocumented elected member of congress. “He’s fought to dismantle U.S. Department of Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE), keep families together, defend due process, and protect our communities from abusive enforcement,” an extract from Espaillat’s campaign website reads.

 

Avila Chevalier, a PhD student at Columbia University, has broadly categorized some of Espaillat’s actions in this regard as optics, and alleges when her fellow Columbia student, Mahmoud Khalil, was famously detained amid the University student protests against Israel’s bombing of Gaza in recent years, the congressman did not receive the support he needed from Espaillat.

 

Meanwhile, Espaillat says he has joined litigation against the Trump administration to protect Congress’s authority to conduct oversight visits at ICE detention centers without advance notice, and has introduced legislation requiring ICE and Border Patrol agents to wear body cameras, and to protect sensitive locations such as schools and hospitals from immigration enforcement actions.

 

The congressman said he has also supported legal efforts to prevent the IRS from sharing confidential taxpayer information with immigration enforcement agencies, and helped block an agreement allowing airlines to share sensitive passenger data with ICE. Espaillat said he has fought against deportations, using his office to help keep families together, and presided over the vote to pass the DREAM Act. He said he has also co-sponsored legislation to defund and dismantle ICE.

 

On affordability, his campaign website extract reads, “New Yorkers are getting squeezed: rent, groceries, childcare, everything. Adriano has delivered real relief, and he’s going to keep fighting so working families can stay in the neighborhood they built.” Espaillat also said he has fought in the courtroom for renters’ rights and fair housing, testifying against efforts to weaken the Fair Housing Act.

 

As reported, the congressman helped secure a $1.05 million grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which, along with other City & State funding, is allocated to the redevelopment of the Kingsbridge Armory. At a joint event at the armory on Aug. 8, 2023, with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, then-Mayor Eric Adams and a host of other elected officials, the congressman said in part, “The Kingsbridge Armory is a majestic, incredible structure that could be activated to deliver so much to our community and The Bronx.”

 

In April 2025, as reported, a lawsuit was filed against NYC Economic Development Corporation (EDC) and several current and former elected officials by Agallas Equities, a Manhattan-based real estate firm and losing bidder for the Kingsbridge Armory redevelopment Request for Proposal (RFP). Agallas alleged favoritism by those named in the suit for the winning bidder, 8th Regiment Partners, and an ethics complaint was later reportedly filed the same year against Espaillat, also alleging favoritism for the winning bidder.

 

In the context of this story, Norwood News reached out to Agallas Equities and the EDC for an update on the lawsuit. We did not receive a response from either entity. We also contacted Agallas Equities, the Office of Congressional Conduct, and the Congressional Committee on Ethics for an update on the ethics complaint to ask for the latest status. We did not receive a response from Agallas Equities nor from the Office of Congressional Conduct. The Congressional Ethics committee replied, “No comment.”

 

Aside from other Manhattan-based investments, the congressman has also said that he introduced legislation to help homeowners and working families in the Caribbean/Puerto Rico access grants to rebuild and renovate after Hurricane Maria.

 

In terms of democracy, an extract from his campaign website reads in part, “Extremists are trying to rig the rules and silence our communities. Adriano has stood up in the streets and in the courts to protect our rights and he’ll keep defending the freedom to vote, protest, and be heard.”

Espaillat said he was among the first members of congress to back the impeachment of Donald Trump in 2017, introduced the JARED Act to block security clearances for presidential family members who can’t pass a background check, and supported calls for full transparency and accountability regarding the release of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein.

 

He said he has also “pushed for responsible national security that reflects our values, standing against reckless, unchecked military spending.” The congressman co-chairs the Latino-Jewish Caucus “to build bridges across communities,” and “secured millions in funding to combat drug trafficking to protect families.” As reported, his Harlem office was previously vandalized for displaying posters of the victims of the Oct. 7th attacks in Southern Israel in the window.

 

Meanwhile, according to Politico, following a 2023 Manhattan Democratic Party leadership election, a February 2025 report concluded that Espaillat and others “violated multiple provisions of the New York County Democratic Party Rules through vote manipulation, improper check-in procedures, intimidation tactics, improper filling of vacancies, and obstruction of accountability mechanisms.”

 

The Ethics Committee acknowledged arguments raised in a response submitted by Espaillat and others named in the complaint but said their arguments did not sufficiently address or negate evidence of misconduct presented by the complainants and witnesses. “While systemic failures may have contributed to procedural inefficiencies during the October 5 meeting, substantial evidence indicates that these failures were exacerbated by deliberate actions taken by the accused leaders to manipulate votes, obstruct registration processes, intimidate participants, and undermine democratic principles,” an extract from the report reads.

 

Norwood News reached out to the Manhattan Democratic Party to ask how Espaillat, and others investigated at the time, were held accountable for their actions. We did not receive an immediate response.

 

In October 2025, as reported, a $6 million investment was made in the South and West Bronx community-led, public safety initiatives like the Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark’s “Bronx Restore” program, and the “West Bronx Community Safety Partnership.” 

 

The latter is an initiative launched, as reported, by City Council Member Pierina Sánchez (C.D. 14) and other local officials, community leaders, and grassroots organizations in response to persistently high levels of gun violence, and a shared goal of creating a safer West Bronx.

 

Espaillat recently said, “This Gun Violence Awareness Month, we honor the lives lost to gun violence and stand with the families, survivors, and communities carrying its lasting impact. We must continue fighting for solutions that save lives, strengthen public safety, and spare more families from unimaginable loss. The time to act is now.”

 

Meanwhile, Aria Chevalier, 32, a self-described working-class, Afro-Latina community organizer, whose father is a truck driver and whose mother is a single mom and case worker, has lived in New York City, Florida, the Dominican Republic, and in Venezuela at different points, before moving “uptown” to attend Columbia University and still lives there, according to her campaign profile.

 

She is currently a PhD student at CUNY, and “studies how the U.S. immigration system criminalizes Black immigrants from Latin America.” Her community organizing includes successfully fighting ICE “to release immigrants that were illegally detained, and to reunite families separated by ICE.” While working at a human rights organization, Families for Freedom, Avila Chevalier said she helped free from ICE detention, Abdikar Mohamed, a U.S. permanent resident from Somalia who was detained for one and a half years due to Trump’s 2017 “Muslim ban.”

 

Like many Democratic challengers, Avila Chevalier is running on a platform focused on affordability. On Day 1, according to her campaign website, she will sign onto the Homes Act “to build deeply affordable public housing, cooperatives, and community land trusts with rent caps and other protections for tenants,” the Tenants Right to Organize Act “so renters receiving housing vouchers are protected from landlord retaliation,” the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act “to build union density and give everyone who wants to form a union the fair chance to exercise that right,” and the Raise the Wage Act “to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25  to $15 an hour.”

 

The candidate has also committed to the Green New Deal “to transition to a 100% clean energy economy with high-wage union jobs and a livable world for everyone,” the American Dream & Promise Act “to provide a path to citizenship for millions of DREAMers and immigrants with Temporary Protective Status (TPS),” the Child Care for Every Community Act “to create universal child care nationwide, the Social Security Expansion Act “to increase benefits so our seniors live in dignity,  and the Prescription Drug Price Relief Act “so corporations can’t charge Americans more for a drug in the U.S. than they would overseas.

 

Avila Chevalier’s campaign said she has also signed up to the Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act and the Equal Tax Act, to fairly tax billionaires, the College for All Act “to guarantee tuition-free community college for working class students, the Block the Bombs Act “to ban the U.S. from sending weapons to Israel that are used to bomb Gaza,” and the Medicare for All Act “so everyone has health insurance including dental, vision, and hearing aids.”

 

Norwood News spoke to Avila Chevalier on June 10 and asked where and when she has been campaigning in The Bronx, and what are the top concerns Bronx residents have raised with her. “We’ve had a number of events in The Bronx, our largest being the rally at Lehman College, which is actually the school I used to teach at over there, with DSA and Bernie Sanders,” she said, adding that she also has had regular canvasses in “Bedford Park, [inaudible] and Kingsbridge.”

 

Avila Chevalier also said her campaign team has had a daily “knock the block” program, talking to neighbors in their own communities and has gone to multiple Bronx community organizations and houses of worship to also canvass. “The Bronx is so relational; it’s really important for folks to hear directly from their neighbors, and they’ve really been able to build out our presence as a campaign in that way,” she said.

 

The candidate said for many people, affordability and immigration were huge issues. “[This] is why I’m running to win housing for all, running to make sure our tax dollars come back to our communities, and invest in our babies, not bombs, and making sure that we are abolishing ICE to protect our immigrant neighbors, and using those resources to create pathways to citizenship,” she said in part.

 

We asked Avila Chevalier if there were any priority policy areas the incumbent has not already worked on that she would prioritize, if elected, or if none, in terms of common policy areas to herself and Espaillat, how she would approach such areas differently, if elected. “In terms of housing, really pushing for the Green New Deal for public housing to make sure that NYCHA residents get the investments that it needs to actually repair and decarbonize NYCHA, and make sure that we are creating good union jobs for folks in the process, making sure that we are protecting the tenants’ right to organize, and making sure that we are signing on to the Homes Act,” she said in part.

 

“In terms of immigration, signing on to the Melt ICE Act; my opponent is the chair of the CHC [Congressional Hispanic Caucus] and he isn’t even signed on to this act, and making sure that we are under this framework of babies not bombs, actually blocking the bombs, because despite the overwhelming majority of Democrats supporting this, we still have not had a representative who will sign on to this act,” she said.

 

The candidate added, “I think that’s deeply important, because of the billions of dollars that we send in weapons. That is billions of dollars that could come back to our communities, that we could be investing in childcare, that we could be investing in the child tax credits, or baby bonds, or all of the other things that would really benefit working families here in our district and across the country.”

 

It’s been reported that Avila Chevalier attended the anti-Israel rally in Times Square the day after the Oct. 7^th attacks on Southern Israel, something that some Jewish people, including local Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz (A.D. 81), and others found highly insensitive, as reported at the time.

 

Acknowledging her past comments that she had attended the rally to draw attention to the injustices faced by Palestinians at the hands of the Israeli government, but given the divided times we live in, we asked Avila Chevalier what, if any, was her experience of conflict resolution and, if elected, how would she bring people together.

 

“I think many New Yorkers are really hungry for our politics of life, one that actually invests our resources in our communities, and so that’s why we’ve really been advocating for a framework of babies, not bombs, making sure that we are divesting from the things that are harming our communities, and investing in things that are helpful to our communities,” she said. “All the things that our babies need, every single person in our community also needs,’ she added in part.

 

She continued, “We deserve leadership that is fighting for human life, for human dignity, and making sure that our policy and our budgets reflect that because I truly believe that budgets are a moral document, and we can only win all of that if we’re actually bringing people together.” Avila Chevalier said as an organizer, that is the core of what organizing is, “to be part of or to combine common ground between people who have different views on a number of issues.”

 

She added, “There are no two people who have the same views on every single issue, and you have to be able to build trust, and build something that uplifts all of us to be able to actually deliver. I’ve taken many conflict resolution courses or their experience in de-escalation, but the biggest thing is just being able to listen to folks, like hear where they’re coming from, even when you’re in a place of deep disagreement, because if you don’t actually understand where they’re coming from, you’re never going to find those points of common ground where you can actually build off from.”

 

Avila Chevalier added in part, “I attended that rally as a private citizen, because I believe that any loss of life is deeply unconscionable. As in any rally or gathering, there are always people there you don’t agree with, and some of them have views that I condemn. I’m committed to fighting against the loss of life everywhere, and that’s at the core of my belief. That’s what we’re fighting for in this campaign, fighting for a politics of life. That’s been at the heart of my organizing.”

 

Meanwhile, it was also reported that Avila Chevalier had deleted some of her prior tweets. Given the Israeli government does not obviously speak for all Jewish people everywhere, we asked the candidate if she had any regrets in terms of any past words or actions.

 

“I have always said that the State of Israel is not the Jewish people,” she said in part. “These two things cannot be conflated, and it’s deeply dangerous for us to conflate them.” She continued, “The State of Israel is an institution and it does not represent Jewish people as a whole, and I also recognize that folks are having a lot of questions right now. I have always condemned the loss of life no matter what. Life, human life, is sacred, and we should always be fighting for human life and human dignity.”

 

Meanwhile, Avila Chevalier has taken aim at Espaillat for accepting campaign donations from the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). AIPAC and its 6.5 million members advocate for policies that “strengthen the U.S.-Israel partnership,” according to its website, and help elect Democrats and Republicans who support the alliance.

 

Under United States federal law, foreign nationals and foreign governments are prohibited from making direct contributions to U.S. political campaigns. According to its website, AIPAC’s “members and donors are all Americans, and AIPAC is neither directed nor funded by the Israeli government.” However, the correlation between AIPAC spending on U.S. political campaigns and U.S. cumulative military and economic spending for Israel’s benefit over the decades can hardly be ignored.

Avila Chevalier has also criticized Espaillat for being heavily funded by the real estate industry, despite ever increasing rents in his district. According to NYU Furman Center data, the median gross rent in Central Harlem rose from $1,010 in 2006 to over $1,540 in 2024. Espaillat had initially backed former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo for mayor of New York City in the 2025 Democratic primary, but later endorsed Mamdani in the general election, as reported.

 

She added, “I’m fighting to represent every New Yorker in this district, and to make sure that the things that we need as New Yorkers that we are delivering on, and the thing that you can always expect from me is that I will show up and I will listen, and I will always fight for New Yorkers, because that is what we deserve. We deserve leadership that will fight for us.”

 

Norwood News reached out to the congressman for his feedback on this story. We did not receive an immediate response but will share any updates we receive.

 

Theo Chino-Tavarez and Oscar Romero are also running in the Democratic Primary.

 

Early voting starts Saturday, June 13. Election Day is June 23. 13. Visit https://www.vote.nyc/elections for more information.