Darializa Avila Chevalier and the far-left DSA are snubbing the minorities they claim to represent

The DSA is hoping to expand its influence in New York’s primaries next week, but it’s got a big problem: It doesn’t seem to care about the people it claims to represent.The Democratic Socialists of America playbook is simple — and dangerous: claim to speak for minority communities, push an agenda those communities never asked for and leave them with no voice in their own neighborhoods.Nowhere is this more apparent than in NY-13, a district of traditionally black and Hispanic neighborhoods — including most of Manhattan above 100th Street on the West Side, and above 98th Street on the East Side, plus a small part of The Bronx — that’s now seeing dramatic demographic changes.Since 2000, Central Harlem’s black population alone plunged by over 25%.Over the years, the largely left-of-center district has re-elected Democratic Rep.Adriano Espaillat handily.

But this year he’s being challenged by DSA member Darializa Avila Chevalier, who aligns with the group’s most extreme priorities.Polling reveals two truths: First, New Yorkers of color aren’t keen on what the DSA wants to do to us.Second, support for the DSA is not being driven by the working-class blacks and Hispanics it claims to represent.Its “movement” in NY-13 is being fueled disproportionately by people it usually calls “gentrifiers” — newer, wealthier and whiter voters whose priorities differ sharply from those of longtime residents.This is all happening while local working families of color have watched their rents and other vital costs soar, driving a sense that the communities they built are becoming unlivable for them.Meanwhile, the DSA — which claims to focus on affordability — is powered by political forces connected to the very displacement pressures that have made it worse. Espaillat leads in the polls 35% to 27%, but the story isn’t the horserace; it’s what’s behind those numbers — the fact that Chevalier’s political competitiveness is driven nearly entirely...