Controversial social media posts by socialist Congressional contender for Manhattan, Darializa Avila Chevalier, that criticized U.S. service members have resurfaced.
Avila Chevalier, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) who was endorsed last week by Mayor Zohran Mamdani for New York Congressional District 13 in Upper Manhattan, insinuated the U.S. military is guilty of war crimes and not worthy of funding, according to 2020 to 2022 posts on social media that have since been deleted, at least superficially.
A message she posted in 2022 on X (then Twitter) appears to mock service members, describing their work as committing “war crimes.”
“Just a lil 4 years of imperialism,” the candidate for Congress wrote. “You may even get a free trip to Europe soon. Might as well. If you make it back, get the cardboard box they give vets as a reward for war crimes and chill after that.”
In June 2020, Avila Chevalier advocated cutting U.S. defense spending to 0%. After Bernie Sanders advocated bringing the military budget down 10%, Chevalier posted on X, “Add another 0 and then we’d be talking!”
A look back at deleted posts also shows her responding approvingly to a January 2020 post that appears to suggest those who volunteer for the military are “child murderers” and “pro-imperialism.”
Various online tools can be used to find deleted social media posts and individual accounts. The recently uncovered posts were made on the candidate’s since-deleted @darializabonet account, which she used before running to represent the 13th District against incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat, who has held the position since 2017.
Espaillat, 71, was a member of the NYS Senate and Assembly before he was elected to the U.S. House. He also chairs the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
Avila Chevalier’s resume includes being an activist, an investigator for a public defender’s office and attending Columbia University.
She also has one thing that Espaillat does not have: An endorsement from the mayor for the June 23 Democratic primary in New York.
“I am so excited to be sitting here with Darializa,” Mamdani said on a recent episode of ‘The Briefing with Jen Psaki.’ “And I’m so excited to be endorsing her in her run for Congress. She is the daughter of a single mom caseworker, and she grew up with a commitment to the very people that politics have left behind.”
amNewYork contacted Avila Chevalier’s campaign office for comment on the deleted posts, including questions about their meaning, clarity and why they were deleted, and is awaiting a response.
Meanwhile, Avila Chevalier has not been shy about publicly criticizing the United States’ involvement in war and military support for Israel.
“For decades, both establishment Democrats and Republicans alike have used billions of our taxes to fund senseless wars abroad,” her campaign site reads. “The U.S. sends more than $3 billion to Israel in military aid each year. We spend $1 billion per day in the U.S. war in Iran.”
Around 747,000 to 780,000 people live in District 13; around 8,000 of them are veterans.
In the meantime, Espaillat — who has strongly opposed the war in Iran — has had his fair share of constituent criticism over the years. Some Upper Manhattan voters have said he has become stagnant after many years in both state and federal office.
One person on Reddit wrote recently that the incumbent is “another cog in the NY Dem machine.”
Another Redditor wrote, “Espaillat is a long-term incumbent who hasn’t done anything worthwhile for working-class constituents in forever. Asleep at the wheel, or perhaps bought by the interests that keep getting him reelected.”
In the same message, the poster critiqued Avila Chevalier, saying, “Chevalier and her staff seem incredibly naive, to put it kindly, about how the world and the world of policy work.”
