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Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) said Thursday that he has “profound differences” with a democratic socialist who won a House primary in New York this week, as intraparty tensions grow heading into the midterms.
Darializa Avila Chevalier defeated five-term Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D), the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, in Tuesday’s primary for his seat in New York’s 13th Congressional District.
It was a win for New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D), a fellow democratic socialist who has successfully backed several progressives in their bids to unseat incumbent Democrats.
Shapiro, who has been mentioned as a potential 2028 presidential candidate, told CNN’s Dana Bash that he did not align with the views of Avila Chevalier, who has faced heavy criticism for past rhetoric regarding Israel, support for abolishing the police and other farther-left policy positions.
“She’s not someone who seemingly I would agree with on many things or that we share similar values,” the governor said. “She ran on the Democratic ticket, I guess, as a socialist. Voters in that district determined that she was the one they wanted representing her.”
The reaction to Avila Chevalier’s victory and other high-profile wins by socialist candidates exemplify a growing divide within the Democratic Party, which has struggled to find its footing since former Vice President Kamala Harris’s (D) loss to President Trump in 2024.
Avila Chevalier has been described by critics as a communist, a label she rejects as inaccurate.
She and others like Mamdani have found success by pushing affordability issues to the forefront of their races and advocating for free healthcare, free transportation and higher taxes on the wealthy as a way to level the economic playing field in New York and across the country.
Those issues are deeply connected to the party’s core base, Avila Chevalier argued during a recent appearance on MS NOW.
“We are presenting a vision of what we’re fighting for. And I think for far too long, we have had politics that is reactive to what Republicans are doing,” she said.
The movement’s growing influence has only deepened the party’s identity crisis heading into the November midterms, in which Democrats are desperately hoping to regain control of Congress.
Shapiro on Thursday accused some Democratic candidates of engaging in “performative politics,” urging his party to “find our way” toward those who can go beyond campaign promises.
“It’s one thing to speak platitudes during a campaign; it’s a whole other thing to actually deliver for people who are genuinely hurting, who genuinely need to see cost of living go down,” he told Bash.
But the governor also said the internal debate about the direction of the party was “very healthy” and something it has been needing.
“Something we’ve not really done since the 1992 election cycle is to have a battle over what we believe in, to have a battle over the ideas that we are going to hold on to and campaign on, and then deliver on as a way to make people’s lives better,” Shapiro said.
Add as preferred source on Google Tags Adriano Espaillat Dana Bash Josh Shapiro Kamala Harris Zohran MamdaniCopyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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