Darializa Avila Chevalier defeated incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat in Tuesday’s Democratic primary for New York’s 13th Congressional District, putting the socialist candidate on track for November in a heavily Democratic seat.
CNN’s report on a deleted account intensified scrutiny after it surfaced posts praising communism, urging readers to study Karl Marx, lamenting limited Marxist literature and quoting Assata Shakur.
The renewed backlash adds to earlier criticism over deleted posts calling to abolish the police and describing wiping her hands on an American flag.
John Fetterman used the episode to attack Democrats’ leftward drift, while conservatives and moderates amplified the controversy around a candidate backed by Zohran Mamdani and the Democratic Socialists of America.