Democratic Socialists topple Harlem incumbent with votes from 7% of registered Dems

A five-term congressman lost his seat Tuesday to a 32-year-old community organizer backed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani — and the margin of victory came from just 7% of the district’s registered Democrats.

Darializa Avila Chevalier won the Democratic primary in New York’s 13th Congressional District with roughly 32,700 votes to incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat’s 30,400, according to preliminary results reported by the Associated Press. The district has approximately 449,000 active registered Democrats. That means Ms. Avila Chevalier — poised to hold a seat in the United States House of Representatives — secured the nomination with the support of roughly 7% of her own party’s voters.

The overall turnout rate in the 13th Congressional District was 15%, about 7 points lower than it was during the 2025 mayoral primary cycle, according to Gothamist. Citywide, roughly 17% of Democratic voters participated, according to election data.

That’s precisely how the Democratic Socialists of America won, analysts said.

JC Polanco, a political analyst and professor at the University of Mount Saint Vincent in the Bronx, was blunt: “It’s a hostile takeover by the Democratic Socialists of America who have demonstrated that they have the organization to win primaries where there is no voter turnout.”

He told the New York Post that the DSA had effectively seized control of the party at the local level. “In some of these districts, nobody votes, it’s a very small turnout and the Democratic Socialists of America come in and win.”

The coalition that carried Ms. Avila Chevalier looked nothing like the district she will represent. Neighborhoods like Harlem, Hamilton Heights and Washington Heights swung for Ms. Avila Chevalier, who won with 55% of the vote in those areas, while Mr. Espaillat held on in pockets of Northeast Harlem, according to Gothamist. Analysis from VoteHub, a nonpartisan political media organization, found that she swept white voters 68% to Mr. Espaillat’s 39% — despite white residents comprising just 15% of the district, which is 52% Hispanic and 23% Black, according to U.S. Census data. About 28% of residents hold a college degree and the typical household earns $52,000 a year.

Economic analyst Steve Rattner wrote on X that the results were “driven by young college grads, often at odds with the party’s traditional working-class and minority base.”

Ms. Avila Chevalier, who works at a public defender’s office, cast Mr. Espaillat as insufficiently combative on behalf of his working-class constituents and out of step with Democratic primary voters on Israel policy, according to NBC News. She declared in her victory speech that it was “a new dawn for this district,” NY1 reported.

The result made Mr. Espaillat the sixth House incumbent to lose re-nomination this cycle, according to NBC News. He had amassed a formidable slate of endorsements from powerful Democratic officials, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, NPR reported. Harlem power broker Keith Wright attributed the loss in part to Mr. Espaillat’s strained history with the borough’s Black political establishment, which he had alienated through past primary challenges against longtime Rep. Charles Rangel.

“Espaillat’s support in the black community was very soft,” Mr. Wright told the New York Post. “Democrats voted for change.”

The 13th District result was not an isolated phenomenon. A parallel dynamic played out in New York’s 7th Congressional District, where DSA-aligned state Assembly Member Claire Valdez won the nomination with roughly 38,000 votes out of 456,000 active Democratic voters — just over 8% of the electorate. In the 10th Congressional District, former city Comptroller Brad Lander, also backed by Mr. Mamdani, defeated two-term Rep. Dan Goldman with a broader coalition and wider margins, taking 65.8% of the vote, according to the World Socialist Web Site.

Alex Camarda, senior policy adviser at the good-government organization Reinvent Albany, said the Democratic establishment had failed to match the DSA’s organizing energy among younger voters.

“Traditional Democrats, as well as Republicans, just don’t seem to excite young people or try to bring new voters into their party,” Mr. Camarda told the Post. The DSA, he said, had succeeded by making participation feel social and communal — more like a recommendation from a friend than a civic obligation.

Because the districts are heavily Democratic, major election forecasters have rated the general election contests as solidly Democratic — meaning Tuesday’s primary results are, in effect, the final word.