As Darializa Avila Chevalier mounts an insurgent campaign against Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) in Upper Manhattan, the democratic socialist has faced mounting scrutiny over past controversial posts that have surfaced in recent days, raising questions about whether the negative publicity will blunt her chances in the June 23 primary election.

While she has struggled to defend her posts when pressed by reporters, some strategists suggested that her incendiary views could get overlooked amid a national political landscape favoring extreme, anti-establishment sentiments now fueling the rise of several far-left candidates in Democratic primaries around the country.

“It seems to not matter in a way that it would have been a deal-breaker 15 or 20 years ago,” Chris Coffey, a Democratic strategist in New York City who is not involved in the primary, told Jewish Insider on Monday. “This race feels like our new outlier, where some of the things she’s said are so far beyond the pale.”

Avila Chevalier, endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, has drawn backlash for a series of now-deleted social media posts in which she called for abolishing the police, voiced anti-American and pro-Russian sentiments, shared a post saying “Israel doesn’t exist,” and harshly criticized former President Joe Biden as well as former Vice President Kamala Harris, among other inflammatory comments that recently surfaced.

The 32-year-old Afro-Latina community organizer has been at pains to explain her remarks, which she has largely refused to disavow, alternately accusing Espaillat of “relitigating” old social media posts, saying that her “understanding of how to approach the systems has grown” and claiming that she is “not sure about the context” of some comments — including one arguing the United States had “bullied” Russia into attacking Ukraine.

Avila Chevalier, who helped lead anti-Israel protests at Columbia University, also showed no regret about her decision to join a widely condemned pro-Hamas rally in Times Square just a day after the terror group’s Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel.

Despite the range of offensive posts, some strategists speculated that Avila Chevalier’s statements specifically calling Biden a “rapist” and “war criminal” and dismissing Harris with an expletive could dent her ascendant campaign in vote-rich Harlem — where older Black constituents would be most likely to find such views off-putting.

“The Biden-Harris tweets could be very damaging to her in Harlem, where the race will be won and lost,” Hank Sheinkopf, a Democratic strategist who is not affiliated with the race, told JI. 

Still, he added, “There are a lot of people who will say she’s right.”

The primary challenge appears to have crept up on Espaillat, who has found himself playing defense in the closing stretch of the campaign, amid a surge of outside spending hoping to boost his reelection bid.

While some pro-Espaillat messaging has sought to highlight Avila Chevalier’s past posts, one strategist familiar with the congressman’s campaign, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly, said the congressman’s team broke an unwritten rule of political messaging when it went negative in a recent attack ad that ripped her remarks about Biden and Harris. 

Typically, outside groups are tasked with such messaging, unless a campaign “really, really has to,” the strategist, who interpreted the Espaillat ad as a sign of weakness, said of the decision.

“It was an emotional, really irrational move from the campaign to put it out,” the political strategist told JI. “They’re being reactive and not proactive.”

The Latino Victory Fund and BOLD PAC, the political arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus chaired by Espaillat, have spent heavily in the race to bolster the endangered incumbent.

A Democratic operative familiar with the primary also indicated to JI that Espaillat could count on a separate seven-figure independent expenditure to boost his bid, but with early voting set to begin this weekend, the status of that spending was unclear as of Monday afternoon.

Justice Democrats, a far-left group that works to unseat incumbents, and American Priorities, a new anti-Israel super PAC created to counter AIPAC, have likewise invested aggressively on behalf of Avila Chevalier — even as she has condemned outside spending on her campaign site. 

While she has accused Espaillat of being beholden to pro-Israel donors linked to AIPAC, the group’s super PAC is not expected to engage in the primary with just two weeks remaining.

Some strategists privately expressed surprise that Mamdani, who had reportedly promised to endorse Espaillat, backed his opponent, while raising doubts about whether the mayor and his team had properly vetted her online history.

Unlike Mamdani, who distanced himself during his mayoral bid from past social media comments calling to defund the police, Avila Chevalier has, for her part, strained to formulate a compelling argument for why she has evolved, her critics have noted. 

Mamdani’s decision to wade into the closely watched race for Espaillat’s seat represents a major risk to his political credibility, as he also backs a challenger to a pro-Israel House incumbent while throwing support behind a DSA-aligned candidate running against the favored successor to an outgoing congresswoman in a pair of bitterly fought primary matchups.

But while those candidates — Brad Lander and Claire Valdez, respectively — are seen as likely to win, the results of Avila Chevalier’s race are more uncertain, observers note.

In light of her numerous problematic posts, Coffey, the strategist, said the outcome ultimately will show whether voters view such sentiments as disqualifying — especially among younger constituents most likely to back her campaign.

“We’re going to find out whether people care or not,” he told JI.