Rep. Adriano Espaillat and his primary challenger Darializa Avila Chevalier went on the radio Thursday morning and spent much of the hour accusing each other of the exact same thing: taking money they shouldn’t. The two Democrats running in New York’s 13th Congressional District met on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show, and as first reported by AMNY, they sparred over ICE, campaign finance and foreign policy while host Brian Lehrer repeatedly had to cut in and tell both of them to wait their turn.
The district covers the northernmost slice of Manhattan and parts of the west Bronx, and the primary is June 23. Espaillat is the five-term incumbent and the first formerly undocumented person elected to Congress. Avila Chevalier is a democratic socialist organizer and activist running to his left.
Avila Chevalier framed the race around immigration, arguing Espaillat has been too soft on ICE. “I’m running because my community deserves a representative who will fight tooth and nail on all of these issues, who will make sure that we are protecting our community from ICE by abolishing it and who isn’t shying away from that term,” she said.
Espaillat pointed to his own record fighting the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement, which has swept up undocumented immigrants, people with legal status and U.S. citizens without due process. “When I went to court, and I sued Donald Trump to have members of Congress have access to detention centers as is stated in the Constitution, we won,” he said. “And as a result, I was able to go to the detention center in Newark, Delaney Hall, and supervise and hold them accountable.”
Then came the money, and both candidates went after each other on it. Avila Chevalier hit Espaillat for taking cash from donors connected to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, and from real estate developers she said price out and displace low-income New Yorkers. “When I talk about money being accountability, that is what I’m talking about,” she said. “It’s how the money you take from PACs, from these contractors, from these corporations, how that is reflected in the policy we’re enacting.”
Espaillat countered by accusing her of taking “dark money,” citing a New York Times report from earlier that week about American Priorities, a super PAC that said it would spend heavily to boost her. “She continues to get money from corporate sources,” Espaillat said. “She got over a million dollars. Anybody can check the recent infusion of over a million dollars into her campaign coming from a millionaire in Texas.”
According to the New York Post, that Texas millionaire is Hussein “Sam” Mahrouq, an auto entrepreneur who gave $400,000 to American Priorities, a PAC formed this year as a counterweight to AIPAC. The group said it would spend $2 million on ads to help three Mayor Zohran Mamdani-backed candidates: Avila Chevalier, Claire Valdez and Brad Lander. Avila Chevalier said she had no knowledge of the super PAC’s intentions, but added that its efforts “make sense” given how much AIPAC spends on candidates nationwide.
The endorsement math splits along establishment lines. Espaillat has racked up backing from sitting officials including Gov. Kathy Hochul, City Council Speaker Julie Menin and Attorney General Letitia James, along with council members, assembly members and state senators. Mamdani announced last week he is backing Avila Chevalier. Espaillat endorsed Mamdani in last year’s general election but had backed former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the 2025 Democratic mayoral primary.
The full hour is posted on The Brian Lehrer Show’s podcast feed.
