Good morning, and welcome back to The Wolf’s Den. It’s Friday, June 26th, and today I want to talk about something controversial: what happened in New York City’s primary elections on Tuesday night.
So before I dive in, if you appreciate me taking the time to break down the madness, please, consider becoming a paid subscriber today. Your subscription allows me to continue these reports without any corporate sponsors or donors. Thank you.
I waited on this for a few days for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, because of how controversial it is. Secondly, because it requires real thought to comprehend. This isn’t a Trump is bad story. This is a bitter pill to swallow. But it’s a pill we must understand in order to come out the other side better off from it.
Let me say upfront where I’m coming from. I’m not a Republican. I’ve worked inside the Biden administration for a Democratic member of Congress, and I’ve been a Democrat my whole life. That’s exactly why what happened in NY-13 bothers me so much.
Five-term incumbent Adriano Espaillat — the first formerly undocumented immigrant ever elected to Congress, a man endorsed by Hakeem Jeffries and the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus — lost his primary to Darializa Avila Chevalier, a Democratic Socialist backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
I want to be clear about why this result is so alarming, because it isn’t about her politics being left-of-center. It’s about a documented record that should have been disqualifying anywhere in the country.
Avila Chevalier has called for abolishing police, prisons, and borders entirely — not reforming them, ending them. When a fellow activist suggested “defund” might be too soft, she clarified that her actual position was no police at all, ever, full stop. She’s reposted messages declaring that all deportations are wrong. She’s referred to the United States as a disgrace and described it as occupied land while joking about disrespecting the American flag. She’s written approvingly about seizing private property and nationalizing entire industries, including from landlords — ironic, given her own father is one. She once mused that the destructive impulse behind anarchism was “intriguing.” She’s called Joe Biden a rapist and a war criminal, used a vulgar dismissal of Kamala Harris, and gone after Bernie Sanders and AOC for being too supportive of Israel. She’s also made disparaging remarks about interracial relationships that don’t get less ugly with repetition.
These aren’t gotcha clips. They’re a pattern, and they show a real blind spot about why most Americans — whatever their complaints about this country’s politics — are still proud to live here and grateful for the opportunity it gives them.
Here’s the part that should worry every Democrat, regardless of how you feel about Avila Chevalier personally: she’s not going anywhere. She’s going to be sworn in with a real platform and a real microphone in the largest media ecosystem on earth. And practically speaking, she’ll never have the votes to actually abolish the police or seize anyone’s property — people who actually write legislation don’t take her seriously. But that’s almost beside the point. Every time Republicans want to paint the entire Democratic Party as anti-American, communist, or radical, they now have a sitting member of Congress, elected under the party’s own banner, handing them the receipts. The rest of us — the Democrats who actually have to win swing seats and explain ourselves to persuadable voters — are the ones who’ll be answering for it.
Now, the good news: this is still mostly a New York City phenomenon, and there’s a real effort underway to keep it that way.
It’s called the Promise to America, and ten sitting House Democrats have already signed on: Adam Gray, Tom Suozzi, Laura Gillen, Don Davis, Kristen McDonald Rivet, Josh Gottheimer, Maggie Goodlander, Janelle Bynum, Vicente Gonzalez, and Susie Lee. Several more candidates are running under that banner too.
Their pledge is straightforward: capitalist, not socialist. Safety, not lawlessness. Fiscal discipline, not recklessness. A government that solves problems instead of creating them. Mainstream, not extreme. Proud, not ashamed of this country. It’s built on the idea that Democrats win by persuading the whole country, not by chasing purity with an ever-shrinking base.
This is the path back. Not the New York City model — the model of Democrats who actually win in hard, competitive districts.
I’ll be tracking the Promise to America’s progress closely in the weeks ahead. If you want to see what it’s about, sign the pledge yourself, or just follow along, head to www.thepromisetoamerica.com. I’ve signed it. I’m proud of it.
We need a Democratic Party that can actually beat Donald Trump in 2026 and win the Presidency in 2028 — and that means rejecting the road New York just went down and choosing a third way.
See you tomorrow.
-Ethan
