A congressional candidate backed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is facing backlash over a 2020 social media post in which she promoted a discredited theory that COVID-19 originated in France, citing a pro-Beijing media collective as her source.

Darializa Avila Chevalier, 32, who is challenging Rep. Adriano Espaillat in the June 23 Democratic primary for New York’s 13th Congressional District, wrote in a May 10, 2020, post that “once again it was PoC who intervened and stopped the spread of a European plague,” a reference to people of color. The post built on a claim by the Qiao Collective that French hospitals had confirmed COVID-19 outbreaks in November 2019, before China.

The Qiao Collective describes itself as a grassroots group of diaspora Chinese writers and researchers challenging U.S. aggression toward China. It openly affirms its commitment to Marxism-Leninism and to supporting the Communist Party of China. An academic study of the collective found that it seizes on traditional left-wing issues in the United States to extend its reach while posting positive and often revisionist takes on Chinese politics. In other words, it’s a Chinese propaganda outlet.

The France-origin theory has been widely debunked. The scientific and intelligence communities broadly agree that the virus emerged in Wuhan, China, whether from a market or a nearby lab.

Avila Chevalier deleted a previous account containing thousands of posts and told CNN that her old writing did not reflect who she is today, accusing her opponent of living in the past.

The COVID post is the latest in a string of resurfaced or deleted messages that Espaillat’s campaign has spotlighted in an attack ad. In other posts, she disparaged Black and Arab men, used profanity about former Vice President Kamala Harris, and called former President Joe Biden a “rapist,” referencing a former Senate aide’s 1993 assault allegation that Biden has denied and over which he has never been charged. In another deleted post, she joked about wiping her hand on an American flag. A review found earlier deleted posts expressing support for abolishing police, prisons, and borders and for seizing private property.

The race has become a closely watched proxy fight between the party’s establishment and its democratic-socialist wing. Avila Chevalier, an Afro-Latina organizer born in Florida to Dominican immigrant parents, is a public defense investigator in Harlem, a CUNY doctoral candidate, and a union member who served as an organizing lead on Mamdani’s winning 2025 mayoral campaign. An anti-Zionist who was active in pro-Palestinian encampments at Columbia, her alma mater, she has sharply criticized Espaillat’s support for Israel.

Mamdani endorsed her in late May, calling it the completion of a congressional slate that also includes Claire Valdez in the 7th District and Brad Lander in the 10th. She is also backed by the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America and by Justice Democrats, the group that helped elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and that is spending more than $250,000 on her behalf.

Espaillat, 71, has held the seat since 2017 and is the first Dominican-born and first formerly undocumented immigrant to serve in Congress. He chairs the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and has the backing of House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries. Responding to Mamdani’s endorsement, Espaillat said the mayor was entitled to back whom he chose but that one endorsement does not decide a race. Avila Chevalier outraised the incumbent in the first quarter, though Espaillat retains a wide cash-on-hand advantage.

The district covers Upper Manhattan neighborhoods including Harlem, Morningside Heights, and Washington Heights, along with part of the Bronx. Polls open June 23.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)