Also known as DAC, Avila Chevalier has said she\u2019s skeptical<\/a> of deportation, borders and prisons, tweeted about using the American flag as a napkin<\/a>, and expressed sympathy for Russia<\/a> during its invasion of Ukraine. Those public remarks, and many more<\/a>, already have GOP politicians and operatives in full-on attack mode. They have also left some Democrats worried that Republicans have found a potent new foil for the midterms.<\/p>\n

The path she\u2019s taking bears an uncanny resemblance to another democratic socialist firebrand who\u2019s moderated her rhetoric and positions substantially since ascending to Congress eight years ago.<\/p>\n

Like DAC, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez unseated another long-term incumbent to get to the House \u2014 and also instantly became a boogeyman<\/a> for the right.<\/p>\n

But as Ocasio-Cortez continues to moderate<\/a> with an eye toward the mainstream, Avila Chevalier is storming onto the national political scene with a similar anti-establishment bent \u2014 and a very different dogma. And Republicans are trying to make her and her future democratic socialist colleagues a tool in their arsenal to defend the House this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a very real problem in which the Democratic Party has been taken over by socialists,\u201d said Republican Rep. Mike Lawler, who represents a suburban New York House seat that\u2019s one of the most vulnerable in the country. \u201cThis is not something they\u2019re going to be able to just run and hide from.\u201d<\/p>\n

Avila Chevalier, a doctoral student in sociology, helped organize the 2024 pro-Palestinian encampment at Columbia University that sent the campus into chaos and provided a national platform for the left\u2019s discontent over Israel\u2019s military campaign in Gaza.<\/p>\n

On the trail, Avila Chevalier said her old tweets don\u2019t represent her current views and that she\u2019s focused on lowering the cost of living in her district, shifting the focus to \u201cbabies, not bombs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her past comments, though, have made some in the Democratic Party uneasy, despite her apologies and assertions she\u2019s changed (she also affirmed during the campaign<\/a> that she still believes all deportations are wrong, including of undocumented immigrants convicted of serious crimes like murder and rape). And while there are parallels to Ocasio-Cortez in terms of their shared rise to prominence, many view the newcomer as a few steps farther left than the four-term incumbent, who\u2019s frequently floated as a contender for senator and president.<\/p>\n

Liam Kerr, co-founder of centrist Democratic group WelcomePAC, told Blue Light News that Ocasio-Cortez and Avila Chevalier are both products of a broader wave of insurgent Democrats that has risen since the election of President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

“If AOC was this Tea Party’s Ted Cruz, yes, DAC is this Tea Party’s MTG,\u201d he said, referring to former Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. \u201cIt’s less substance and more about a sense that this person is unhinged and indefensible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s team declined to comment for this article. In a social media post, Ocasio-Cortez congratulated the congressional primary winners<\/a>, writing that she looks \u201cforward to working together as a delegation as we fight for working families across New York.\u201d<\/p>\n

$\"Rep.$ <\/p>\n

In a statement, Avila Chevalier’s campaign manager Ilona Duverge said: \u201cWe didn\u2019t just run a campaign for better leadership in this district. We reminded people what the Democratic Party could be. After 2024, the lesson is simple: listen to your base. Working people don\u2019t want scapegoats. They want a party that actually fights for them.\u201d <\/p>\n

In the waning days of the campaign, City & State dubbed Avila Chevalier \u201c like AOC, but to the left<\/a>.\u201d When asked in a recent interview<\/a> what her reaction was when she saw that, she downplayed the comparison.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think my reaction has been the same to all the comparisons I have gotten to anyone in political office right now,\u201d she said. \u201cEarly on it was like, \u2018Oh, are you going to be the next Zohran Mamdani?\u2019 And I was like, \u2018I\u2019m going to be the Darializa Avila Chevalier.\u2019 That is who I have always been. And that\u2019s who I will be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond Avila Chevalier, at least eight state legislative candidates backed by either the Democratic Socialists of America or New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani won in New York on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

Aber Kawas, a Queens community organizer who won one of those seats, is now facing renewed scrutiny<\/a> for saying the long-term effects of capitalism, racism and white supremacy and Islamophobia resulted in the 9\/11 attacks.<\/p>\n

In another House Democratic primary in the city \u2014 for retiring Rep. Nydia Vel\u00e1zquez\u2019s seat \u2014 Mamdani\u2019s longtime DSA ally, Assemblymember Claire Valdez, won in a blowout against Vel\u00e1zquez\u2019s handpicked successor, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso. Reynoso is the former co-chair of the city Council\u2019s progressive caucus, but he never joined the city\u2019s DSA chapter, the political home of Valdez and Mamdani.<\/p>\n

\u201cDemocrats have a Bolshevik revolution going on in their primaries,\u201d Rep. Richard Hudson, the chair of the House Republicans\u2019 campaign arm, told fellow Republicans in a closed-door House GOP meeting<\/a> Wednesday, according to three people in the room, granted anonymity to discuss the event.<\/p>\n

House Speaker Mike Johnson also said the \u201cradical\u201d wins Tuesday night should spur GOP lawmakers to dig in their heels and fundraise.<\/p>\n

The ascent of Avila Chevalier and her socialist colleagues also planted the seeds for more Democratic establishment displacement. The co-leader of the city\u2019s DSA chapter, for instance, expressed regret<\/a> for not supporting a primary of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.<\/p>\n

When asked by a reporter<\/a> Wednesday if he\u2019s worried about a primary challenge in 2028 from a Mamdani-endorsed candidate, Jeffries replied: \u201cWhen you ask me a serious question, I\u2019ll give you a serious answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The left\u2019s rise also means the once-extreme Ocasio-Cortez is now on the ideological periphery of a new insurgent wave as she appears to position herself for higher office.<\/p>\n

Ocasio-Cortez did not endorse in either Valdez or Avila Chevalier\u2019s races. Speaking to reporters at the Capitol on Wednesday, she said her focus was on the 14 down-ballot candidates she did support: \u201cI think I’m going to take a beat and really enjoy their success, and we’ll see what happens from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mamdani, the DSA and the left-leaning group Justice Democrats took on major roles to boost Avila Chevalier and Valdez. Mamdani\u2019s move against Espaillat, as well as Vel\u00e1zquez\u2019s successor of choice, upset Democratic power brokers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Asked by Blue Light News on Tuesday if he believes rank-and-file DSA members are angry with Ocasio-Cortez for not endorsing in those two congressional primaries, Mamdani replied, “I think that AOC is somebody that has inspired so many across our city and our country in the fight for working people, and I think she continues to do so, and I think we’ll see that in the results.”<\/p>\n

$\"Mayor$ <\/p>\n

The mayor also expressed doubt that Avila Chevalier will morph into an effective boogeyman for Republicans in swing districts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve heard from Republicans time and again that they are going to try and make these candidates the face of the Democratic Party,\u201d Mamdani said Wednesday morning. \u201cTo them, I say that we are ready for that because for far too long we\u2019ve been told that it\u2019s not possible to fight for working people and win. These candidates have shown that they can. Let the Republicans talk about that more.\u201d<\/p>\n

A political consultant close to senior congressional Democrats agreed that such attacks won\u2019t work in the current economic climate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn normal times, we should be concerned about attacks like that. In normal times, that probably would work,\u201d said the consultant, who was granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. \u201cBut when the economy is this bad, it\u2019s not going to work \u2026 [The GOP\u2019s] best bet is to try to distract and focus on a random local candidate like Darializa, but the reality is that there\u2019s a litany of horrific things that Republicans have done under this president and that\u2019s what voters are going to care about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrew Bard Epstein, a top adviser to both Valdez and Mamdani, felt the same way \u2014 and then took a shot at Lawler, who faces a challenge in November<\/a> from Army veteran Cait Conley.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t live in the 17th District, but I would think voters there care about costs of living and stopping chaos in the world,\u201d Epstein said, referring to Lawler\u2019s district. \u201cMike Lawler has just cosigned a disastrous war with Iran, which has raised prices and destabilized the world and has left both Iranian civilians and U.S. service members dead. They are the extremists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, some moderate Democrats are concerned. Matt Bennett, co-founder of centrist group Third Way, said he\u2019s worried Avila Chevalier will become a \u201clightning rod\u201d in the way Republicans like Greene and Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert did.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe can live all day on cable news if she feels like it, and will have a huge social media following, and everything she does will be amplified by Republicans,\u201d he said. \u201cThere’s a real risk of her becoming a national figure, even though she will have no impact whatsoever on actual legislating.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meredith Lee Hill and Ali Bianco contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"