Adriano Espaillat

The two Democratic primary candidates for the district representing the northernmost part of Manhattan and parts of the west Bronx took questions from listeners on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show, with each accusing the other of taking corporate money. Avila Chevalier charged that Espaillat is being soft on ICE, while Espaillat hit his democratic socialist challenger over past controversial tweets.

Lehrer, the show’s host and de facto moderator, had to interrupt both candidates multiple times to remind them to wait their turn.

Avila Chevalier told Lehrer that she wanted to challenge the sitting Congress member because she found his representation of constituents in the district lacking.

“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,” Avila Chevalier said.

But Espaillat leaned into his own identity as the first formerly undocumented elected representative in Congress and his history of fighting the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement tactics, which have captured undocumented immigrants, immigrants 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,” Espaillat said. “And as a result, I was able to go to the detention center in Newark, Delaney Hall, and supervise and hold them accountable.”

Espaillat scored most of the endorsements from sitting elected officials like Gov. Kathy Hochul, Council Speaker Julie Menin, State Attorney General Letitia James and a handful of council members, assembly members and state senators.

Meanwhile, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced last week that he would be backing Avila Chevalier for the seat representing upper Manhattan and parts of the Bronx; Espaillat had endorsed Mamdani in the general election last year, but had backed former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the 2025 Democratic mayoral primary.

Both candidates accused each other of accepting campaign money from large PACs and wealthy donors.

Avila Chevalier slammed Espaillat for accepting money from American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)-connected donors, as well as real estate developers who she accused of pricing out and displacing low-income New Yorkers. She said that Espaillat’s record reflected a loyalty to large donors.

“When I talk about money being accountability, that is what I’m talking about,” Avila Chevalier 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, for his part, accused Avila Chevalier of taking “dark money”. He cited an article published in the New York Times on Tuesday about the super-PAC American Priorities, whose donors include a Texas auto entrepreneur. The super-PAC said it would use funding to support progressive candidates, including a large chunk dedicated to Avila Chevalier, and counter pro-Israel campaign finance groups.

“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.”

Avila Chevalier denied having knowledge of the super PAC’s intentions, but indicated that American Priorities’ efforts “make sense” given AIPAC’s major financial support of candidates across the nation.