Mamdani-backed House candidate's deleted posts called for abolishing police, borders

Darializa Avila Chevalier, a 32-year-old Democratic socialist congressional candidate endorsed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, has deleted a previous Twitter account that contained posts advocating for radical policy changes. The account, archived by the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, included over 3,600 tweets from 2018–2022 calling for the abolition of police, borders, and prisons, as well as seizing private property and nationalizing major industries like utilities, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies. Chevalier, an investigator at a New York City public defender’s office and a doctoral student, is challenging Democratic Rep. Adriano Espaillat in the June 23 primary for New York’s 13th Congressional District. Among her deleted posts, she responded to a 2020 social media prompt by stating, ‘Israel doesn’t exist!’ She also reposted messages in September 2021 declaring, ‘A world without borders—just like a world without prisons or police—is possible, necessary, and the only moral way forward,’ alongside calls to ‘abolish the border’ and oppose all deportations. During the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Chevalier reposted demands for suspending rent and mortgage payments, dissolving private health insurance companies, and seizing properties from landlords. In 2019, she wrote, ‘Seize the means of production.’ Her posts during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests rejected watered-down alternatives to ‘defund the police,’ insisting instead on ‘abolishing’ policing entirely. Chevalier also made controversial statements targeting political figures, including calling Joe Biden a ‘rapist’ and ‘war criminal’ during the 2020 election. She accused socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders of promoting ‘liberal Zionism’ and criticized Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for voting ‘present’ on Israeli military funding. Additionally, she reposted a 2021 message declaring, ‘ALL PIGS EVERYWHERE ARE HARAM,’ using an Islamic term to describe something forbidden. The candidate’s past social media activity has drawn attention as she seeks to unseat Espaillat in a primary election, raising questions about her political stance amid broader debates over progressive policies in the Democratic Party.