Three Democrats are running in the June 2026 primary for New York’s 13th Congressional District, the seat that covers Harlem, Washington Heights, Inwood and a swath of the northwest Bronx. The field, laid out by LittleAfrica News, pits the incumbent against two progressive challengers running to his left.
The incumbent is Adriano Espaillat, who currently holds the seat representing Uptown Manhattan and the northwest Bronx. Espaillat was the first Dominican American elected to Congress and was formerly undocumented himself, and his platform centers on immigration reform, affordability, tenant protections and housing. His campaign site sums it up as a fight for “affordability, health care, justice, and dignity for all New Yorkers.”
Challenging him is Darializa Avila Chevalier, who describes herself as a working-class Afro-Latina organizer from Upper Manhattan. She grew up across immigrant communities in Florida, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and New York, and says she has been organizing in upper Manhattan since she was a teenager. Her platform runs on immigrant justice, housing, Medicare for All and abolishing ICE.
The third candidate is Oscar Romero, a progressive Democrat who serves as chief information officer for the NYC Civic Engagement Commission. Romero, a Mexican-American son of immigrants, has built his work around civic engagement and digital equity, and his campaign platform leans on Medicare for All, housing, public education and tenant protections.
Roughly 790,434 people live in NY-13. The median household income is $52,096. Of the 270,403 households there, 88 percent rent their apartments, and 30 percent spend more than half of their income on rent, according to figures published on Romero’s campaign site. That housing math is why tenant protections and affordability keep showing up across all three platforms.
The district stretches across Harlem, East Harlem, West Harlem, Hamilton Heights, Washington Heights, Inwood, Marble Hill and part of Morningside Heights in Manhattan, then reaches into Bedford Park, Jerome Park, Kingsbridge Heights, University Heights and parts of Fordham, Kingsbridge and Morris Heights in the Bronx.
Avila Chevalier’s candidacy has drawn scrutiny over old social media posts. Bushwick Daily previously reported that House Democratic leaders brushed off concerns about her past communist social media posts, saying she has changed.
You can read each candidate’s platform in full on their campaign sites: Espaillat at adrianoespaillat.com, Avila Chevalier at darializaforcongress.com, and Romero at oscarforcongress.com.
