Darializa Avila Chevalier – A New Caribbean American Representative Is Heading To D.C. After The Historic Midterms
Originally published by News Americas Now Read the original
By News Americas Now Staff Writer
News Americas Now, NEW YORK, NY, Weds. Nov. 4, 2026: A new Caribbean-rooted voice is heading to Capitol Hill. Darializa Avila Chevalier, the Afro-Latina daughter of Dominican immigrants who stunned New York’s political establishment earlier this year by defeating veteran Congressman Adriano Espaillat in the Democratic primary, has won election to the U.S. House of Representatives from New York’s 13th Congressional District.
Avila Chevalier defeated Republican Jomo Williams Tuesday in the heavily Democratic district covering Upper Manhattan and portions of the Bronx. With approximately 85 percent of results reported Tuesday night, she had captured about 87.5 percent of the vote, according to reporting by the Columbia Daily Spectator.
Her victory completes an extraordinary rise for a first-time congressional candidate who only months ago toppled one of New York’s most established Latino political figures. In the June Democratic primary, Avila Chevalier defeated Espaillat, chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, with 49.5 percent of the vote to his 45.7 percent, according to New York election results. Espaillat had represented the district since 2017 and was the first Dominican-born person elected to Congress.
Now, Avila Chevalier will succeed him in January – becoming what Dominican media are reporting as the first woman of Dominican origin elected to the U.S. Congress.
FROM DOMINICAN ROOTS TO CAPITOL HILL
Avila Chevalier was born in Florida to working-class Dominican immigrant parents. Her father is a truck driver and her mother worked as a caseworker. Her family moved frequently as her mother struggled to make ends meet, and Avila Chevalier spent part of her early childhood in the Dominican Republic as well as time with family in Venezuela before returning to Florida.
She later moved to New York City to attend Columbia University, graduating in 2016 before pursuing doctoral studies in sociology at the City University of New York. Her academic work has focused in part on the intersection of immigration law, incarceration and the experiences of Black immigrants from Latin America.
Before running for Congress, Avila Chevalier worked as an investigator with Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, as an educator and with immigrant-rights organizations. Her campaign says she has worked to challenge immigration detention and reunite families separated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
A DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST INSURGENT
Avila Chevalier’s candidacy was closely aligned with New York City’s expanding democratic socialist movement. She was backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America and Justice Democrats, among other progressive groups.
Her platform included abolishing ICE, expanding housing assistance and public housing, Medicare for All, reducing the influence of corporate money in politics and redirecting federal resources toward working-class communities. She also made U.S. policy toward Israel and Gaza a prominent issue during the campaign, criticizing Espaillat’s position and his support from pro-Israel political organizations.
Her June victory over Espaillat was one of several primary wins by Mamdani-backed candidates and strengthened the democratic socialist wing of New York politics.
AN AFRO-LATINA, MUSLIM VOICE
Avila Chevalier’s arrival in Congress also adds another dimension to the rapidly changing face of American political representation. She identifies as Afro-Latina and Muslim and comes to Washington from a district with large Dominican, Latino, Black and immigrant populations.
Her political identity has been shaped by experiences spanning the Dominican Republic, Florida, New York and the Middle East. As a Columbia student, she participated in pro-Palestinian organizing and spent time in Nablus in the West Bank teaching English through a youth organization. Those experiences later became part of her broader political critique of U.S. foreign and domestic policy. At 32, she will also be among the younger members entering the next Congress.
ANOTHER CARIBBEAN-ROOTED VOICE
For the Caribbean diaspora, Chevalier’s election carries particular significance. She replaces Dominican-born Espaillat while adding another U.S.-born lawmaker whose political and family identity is deeply rooted in the Caribbean.
She will serve alongside lawmakers including New York Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants and co-chair of the Congressional Caribbean Caucus. Clarke has represented Brooklyn in Congress since 2007. Chevalier’s election also comes amid a broader moment of Caribbean-rooted political visibility following the 2026 midterms, with Caribbean-connected governors elected or reelected in Florida, Maryland and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
But her path to Washington carries a distinctly New York story. The daughter of Dominican immigrants, raised in a working-class household, became an immigration-rights organizer, challenged a ten-year congressional incumbent from her own party – and won. In January, Darializa Avila Chevalier will walk into the U.S. Capitol not as the long-shot challenger who shook New York politics, but as the newly elected representative of one of America’s most Caribbean and immigrant-rich congressional districts.
