AMY GOODMAN: Shockwaves have rocked the Democratic Party nationwide as progressives and DSA candidates endorsed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani win big in New York. In a major blow to the Democratic establishment, three candidates backed by Mamdani have won primary races in New York City and appear to be headed to Congress. Former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander beat Congressman Dan Goldman. The 32-year-old Afro-Latino organizer Darializa Avila Chevalier pulled off a shocking defeat of five-term Congressmember Adriano Espaillat, the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. And New York Assemblymember Claire Valdez, who’s a former union organizer, defeated Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso to fill the seat long held by Nydia Velázquez. Avila Chevalier and Valdez were both backed by the Democratic Socialists of America, which also played a key role in Mamdani’s election. DSA-backed New York state Assembly and Senate candidates also swept their races, with nine out of 10 candidates on the DSA slate winning the primaries.

Democracy Now! was at the DSA watch party for Claire Valdez and others in Brooklyn last night and spoke to progressive streamer Hasan Piker.

HASAN PIKER: A decade of socialism, it’s coming to a neighborhood near you. When I said we were going to let a thousand Zohrans bloom, this is what I meant. We got Claire Valdez and numerous other wonderful DSA candidates that are outperforming expectations tonight. And that’s because the American people are tired of the same old, business-as-usual politics, the corruption, the ineptitude, the feckless nature of the Democrats that don’t want to fight back against the growth of fascism in this country. This is Americans fighting back. It’s only the beginning.

AMY GOODMAN: Claire Valdez addressed her supporters at the end of the night.

CLAIRE VALDEZ: My name is Claire Valdez, and I’m proud to say that I will be your next congressmember. … We haven’t just won an election. We have declared that this movement is durable, that it is growing, and that it will not stop until working people are no longer asked to just build the table, no longer just offered a seat at the table, but will run the table. And make no mistake: This victory is not mine; it is ours. …

That’s what organizing is. It’s being — it’s being asked to do something big, scary, unfamiliar, something that everything inside you says is not for you, it can’t be you. But then you take the plunge. You find your power in solidarity.

And let’s talk about what that ask has now won. I will lead the fight against ICE’s cruelty and stand steadfast alongside our immigrant neighbors. They’ve been demonized, targeted, attacked. And in me, they will have a champion. I will stand steadfast alongside our trans siblings, who are the beating heart in this community. I will continue to call for Palestinian liberation. We will stand up to the genocide. We will refuse to abide by apartheid. And we will use our money to improve lives here instead of destroy them abroad. And I will do everything in my power every single day in Congress to give the labor movement the tools it needs to be a fighting force for the entire working class.

AMY GOODMAN: Claire Valdez, Democratic nominee for Congress from Brooklyn and Queens.

Tuesday’s biggest upset was the victory of 32-year-old Afro-Latina Muslim organizer Darializa Avila Chevalier, who defeated five-term Congressmember Adriano Espaillat, chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Mayor Mamdani addressed a roaring crowd of supporters at her watch party in Harlem last night.

MAYOR ZOHRAN MAMDANI: This campaign began many months ago at the same park that we launched a canvass in today. And at that time, I know that for many, it may have felt like a fantasy that Darializa would be here right now. But it was — it was never a fantasy for her, and it was never a fantasy for all of you. You have willed that dream into a reality.

And I was asked time and again: Why would I support this campaign? And I said then that I can think of no better person than the daughter of a single mother case worker who has for working people her entire life, who has stood up for New Yorkers unjustly detained by ICE, who has called for a foreign policy of investing in babies and not bombs. I can think of no one better than someone of clarity, of conscience and of conviction, to be the next congressperson. …

And it is because you poured your hearts into this, because you poured your hopes into this, that we are showing there is a new path for politics in our city and in our country. We are showing that last June, a year ago tomorrow, was not an anomaly. It was not the end. It was the beginning. …

Join me in welcoming a fellow member of New York City DSA, an Afro-Latina woman, the first Dominican woman to represent this district and the next congresswoman from New York 13, Darializa Avila Chevalier!

AMY GOODMAN: Darializa Avila Chevalier then took to the stage and addressed her supporters in Harlem.

DARIALIZA AVILA CHEVALIER: And I’m so excited to get to work and to bring with you — bring all of you with me to Washington to keep fighting the fight that we have been fighting at the federal level.

SUPPORTER: Free Palestine!

DARIALIZA AVILA CHEVALIER: Because over a year ago, well over a year ago, actually, the odds were stacked against another young Muslim socialist, who was polling at 1%, to become mayor of New York City. And so, I’ll tell you honestly: I’m not concerned about the odds.

AMY GOODMAN: For more, we’re joined now by the Democratic nominee for Congress in New York’s 13th Congressional District, Darializa Avila Chevalier. She defeated five-term Congressmember Adriano Espaillat.

Welcome to Democracy Now! If you could start off by introducing yourself to the country?

DARIALIZA AVILA CHEVALIER: Hi, Amy. Thank you so much for having me. I am a longtime listener, so it’s such an honor to be here, my first interview after winning, here at Democracy Now!

I am an Afro-Latina, Dominican daughter of immigrants. I am an organizer. I have been organizing my entire adult life around immigration justice, around ending mass incarceration, around Palestine. And it is such an honor to be able to have the privilege of having run a campaign that is centering working people in this district, who have for far too long just been ignored by establishment politics. And I’m so deeply grateful to be here. It is such a surreal experience, and truly so excited to get to work and bring the values of working-class people of color here in Harlem and Washington Heights and Inwood and the Bronx into the halls of Congress.

AMY GOODMAN: And talk about what you think are the most important issues that you’ve represented. And what did it mean to you to upset, to beat this five-term congressmember, head of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Adriano Espaillat?

DARIALIZA AVILA CHEVALIER: You know, I am somebody who has had to think about whether I can afford to stay in the city that I love. This is the second-poorest congressional district in the state, and, by some measures, the country. And to know that we centered the needs of this community at the heart of this campaign, where we are fighting for housing for all, to make sure that we abolish ICE and to have our tax dollars come back home to invest in our babies here and not in bombs abroad, was truly, truly at the heart of everything that our community really needs. We have another — another statistic that shocks my mind every single time is the fact that 40% of our children here are living in childhood poverty. And for us to tackle that issue, to give our babies all the things that they need to lead a dignified childhood, would mean that we would be able to provide for every single person in this community. And, you know, we have had representation in the past, over the last nine years, that has really not met those needs, where these crises have just grown.

And it has been such an honor to work with a coalition, with so many organizers on the ground, to build a grassroots movement that is responsive to the working people here, that gets to the issues. And, you know, it was — this campaign was a lot of work. It was something that was built from the very ground up. And in the last few weeks, it was really a difficult one, because we had so many — so much money and so many smears thrown our way. We had over $7 million in outside spending that was being spent to smear me personally, and to use incredibly racist and anti-Black rhetoric. And to know that Black residents in this district came out and supported this campaign in that context, in a context where Voting Rights Act is being gutted, where the rights of so many are under attack, to know that they came out despite the odds and chose these values really means the world to me.

AMY GOODMAN: If you can talk about the attacks on you by the Espaillat camp around your background, questioning your Dominican heritage? Of course, the Dominican Republic shares an island with Haiti. And talk about — as if to be Haitian is an epithet — but what they were saying, this anti-Haitian rhetoric.

DARIALIZA AVILA CHEVALIER: Yeah, I mean, it was — it was a bombardment, where every time I opened any of our social media accounts, I was inundated with rhetoric that was using the term “Haitian” as though it were a slur. I was inundated with emojis, of monkey and gorilla emojis, of rat emojis, of folks asking me and my family for proof of our birth certificate and where we were born. And, you know, I just think it was really one of the ugliest types of rhetoric that I have seen in a really long time. It really reminded me of MAGA-style politics, and it was just so shocking to see that coming in a heavily blue district and in a district where the sitting incumbent was a Democrat.

And, you know, I’m just so honored to have been able to fight against that with my team, with my coalition, and to know that voters here in this district rejected that, to know that we have turned a page on the politics of the past and a politics that is, you know, in so many ways so divisive, and a politics of just cynicism. To be able to turn the page on that and to bring forward a politics of hope, to center a message that is about a politics of life, has really been such an honor and also showing that this is a politics that is popular and that will win, that Americans are tired of this politics of death, of politics of cynicism, and want to make sure that our resources are coming back to our communities and investing in the life and the needs of the people here.

AMY GOODMAN: If you can talk about your experience? You’re a Columbia alum. You were part of, you protested — the encampments, you were a part of. And you actually taught on the West Bank. Talk about your experience as a student there and how that influenced your positions on Palestine and Israel.

DARIALIZA AVILA CHEVALIER: Yeah, I was — I went to undergrad at Columbia University, and while I was a student there, I went to the West Bank, and it deeply formed a lot of my understanding of global politics, but even my own context here in New York, where I started to see and understand that the systems that were oppressing Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, all over Palestine, were also informing our systems here that were having such a deep, harmful impact on so many Black and Latino and communities of color here. And, you know, as you grow as an organizer, as a person, as you become more educated on these systems, you know, you start to notice that they’re not just similar systems, they are the same system. They are systems that consistently put profit over people, that consistently deny people their human dignity for the sake of capital.

And to know that we sent a very loud and clear message yesterday that we will not allow that to continue to be the case, that we will put people first and we will put working people at the heart of our democracy, was — it felt really full circle. To know that we can say “Free Palestine” at our party, to know that we can say what is happening in Gaza is a genocide, and win, and reject the politics of AIPAC, reject the politics of big money and corporations coming into our politics, it is truly, I think, a seismic shift that is happening in our politics.

AMY GOODMAN: Attendees at your victory party last night included the Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate student organizer who was detained four months last year in an ICE jail in Louisiana.

MAHMOUD KHALIL: Today’s win is a big win for New York, is a big win for the working-class community in this country, to have someone like Darializa actually representing them in D.C., representing the struggles, the daily struggles, that this community goes through, rather than politicians who are only cashing money for the sake of gaining power and control. … I’ve known Darializa since my first days at Columbia, and she’s been always very supportive. Even in my absence when I was in detention, she was there for me. She was there for my family. She was there for my community, going in the streets and just, like, supporting in whatever capacity she has. So, now I have no doubt that she will continue to do the same in D.C.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about your organizing around Mahmoud Khalil’s detention, being held for months, and what he symbolized to you, Darializa Avila Chevalier?

DARIALIZA AVILA CHEVALIER: You know, Mahmoud is a friend, but I would have fought for him even if he weren’t, because I have been fighting for immigration justice my entire adult life. It is something that is deeply important to me.

And when I first got the news of his detention, you know, there was the initial shock of it all, but there was a moment also where my organizer brain just kicked in, and I just kind of went into autopilot, where I just started writing to make sure that we were spreading the word about his case and taking control of the narrative, as someone who knew him in that time, and making sure that we were really putting together movement work that could bring attention to his case. And I was already organizing with fellow organizers around civil disobediences, around direct actions, to bring more attention to his case, about court support, to make sure that we were showing that he has a community.

And when the Trump administration said that he would be the blueprint of how immigration enforcement would be conducted going forward, I thought it would be very clear to all our representatives the stakes in his case, not just as an individual, not just on the fact that it was basically punishment for his engagement in free speech around the genocide that was happening towards his people, but also because of the impact that it would have on every immigrant in this country, on the First Amendment rights of every person on U.S. soil. And to know that our representative, the one that was representing him in that moment, that all he could offer were two words around — or, two sentences around trusting Trump’s DOJ, at a time where Trump’s DOJ had just violated the rule of law by detaining him in the first place, was deeply troubling. And so, you know, when I was first considering whether or not this was a race that I wanted to throw my hat in, I just kept thinking about Mahmoud and the millions of people like him and Noor, who are so fearful right now, and what it would have meant to them to have a representative who was actually fighting for them.

AMY GOODMAN: Finally, Darializa Avila Chevalier, your plans for Congress, when, what looks like overwhelmingly, given your district, you will be elected in November?

DARIALIZA AVILA CHEVALIER: I’m so excited to fight for the working people of this district, to make sure that we can all afford to stay in the city that we love. And I think at the heart of that fight is making sure that we are centering human life, and that means that we need to start divesting from this war machine and reinvesting our tax dollars here in our community, fighting to eradicate childhood poverty, because all of the things that our babies need are the things that everyone in our community needs to be able to lead a dignified life.

AMY GOODMAN: And as I watched all the news accounts of your incredible upset victory over Espaillat, I heard your name pronounced about 40 different ways, so I was wondering if you could say for the country, in your own words, your own name.

DARIALIZA AVILA CHEVALIER: My name is Darializa Avila Chevalier. And I’m very grateful to you, Amy, for allowing me to do that.

AMY GOODMAN: Darializa Avila Chevalier, New York’s 13th Congressional District Democratic nominee. Congratulations.

DARIALIZA AVILA CHEVALIER: Thank you so much.