Chevalier praise for Kim Il Sung sparks backlash

Chevalier praised – Unearthed deleted tweets from Darializa Avila Chevalier, a socialist candidate who won a Democratic congressional primary in New York City last week, show praise for communist figures including North Korea’s Kim Il Sung and criticism that library selections la

Darializa Avila Chevalier’s rise through New York City’s Democratic primary last week has not stopped the scrutiny—because the internet trail she left behind didn’t disappear with the tweets.

Deleted posts uncovered this week show Chevalier praising communist leaders. including North Korea’s founder Kim Il Sung. and lamenting that public libraries didn’t have enough books by Vladimir Lenin and other Marxist figures. The tweets also reflect anger that a bookstore’s “banned books” display did not include The Complete Works of J. V. Stalin.

The unearthed material adds to a growing record of deleted statements that predate her primary win and has given critics fresh ammunition. Journalistic digging also found that Chevalier praised Karl Marx as an “essential must-read. ” complained about what was available in libraries. and expressed frustration about the absence of Stalin’s complete works.

Chevalier’s posts also expressed affection for other brutal communist leaders, according to the reporting that surfaced the deletions.

One retweet archived in 2020 brings a particular jolt. In it. Chevalier quoted Assata Shakur—the former Black Liberation Army member convicted in 1977 in the murder of a New Jersey state trooper before later escaping prison and fleeing to Cuba. Shakur’s words. as presented in the quote. said she “preferred Ho Chi Minh. Kim Il Sung. Che. or Fidel (Castro)” before studying Marx and Lenin because the two “white dudes” made contributions to “revolutionary struggle” that were “too great to be ignored.”.

That thread matters because it lands inside a broader political moment. The latest batch of deleted posts follows earlier revelations that Chevalier described the U.S. flag as a napkin, questioned interracial dating, and called for abolishing borders and prisons. Those earlier controversies did not stop NYC voters from choosing her over incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) in last week’s Democratic congressional primary.

Chevalier is not an isolated figure in this political surge. She is one of three Democratic Socialists who won their Democratic congressional primaries in New York City last week. a wave that is tied directly to Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D). Mamdani backed all three—Chevalier. Claire Valdez (D). and Brad Lander (D)—and celebrated the results on election night and in interviews later in the week.

Both Chevalier and Claire Valdez are card-carrying DSA members, just like Mamdani. The third candidate. Brad Lander. is a former member of the DSA who left after its response to the October 7 Hamas terror attack in Israel. Still, Lander received Mamdani’s support and ran more critically of Israel than incumbent Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY). Lander has said that American support for Israel makes the U.S. “complicit in genocide.”.

Across their shared socialist alignment, the three candidates also agree with Mamdani that ICE needs to be abolished.

That combination—socialist branding, policy priorities, and now unearthed praise for communist leaders—has unsettled parts of the Democratic Party. One centrist House Democrat told Axios that 2027 would be a “headache” for the party with them around. while another House Democrat reacted to the sweep by saying. “Holy sh*t.”.

The reaction hasn’t stayed inside Washington’s usual lanes, either. Bill Maher vented that Democrats would “blow” the midterms if they embrace the “crazy” socialists, and James Carville urged congressional Democrats to shun any socialists who enter Congress.

President Donald Trump, meanwhile, began with a mocking congratulate-and-watch tone. He sardonically congratulated Mamdani on getting “3 solid Communists” elected, and later in the week shifted his wording, saying the Communists had started to make “their move” in the USA.

For Chevalier and the other socialist primary winners. the political message they’ve carried into the general election is now competing with a different kind of narrative—one written in deleted posts that critics are using to define what the candidates celebrate. what they dismiss. and what they wish had been easier to find on library shelves.

Darializa Avila Chevalier Kim Il Sung North Korea communists Karl Marx Vladimir Lenin Joseph Stalin Assata Shakur Zohran Mamdani Democratic Socialist DSA ICE abolition Adriano Espaillat New York City congressional primary Trump