Democratic socialist contender Darializa Avila Chevalier recently secured a surprising primary triumph in New York, an outcome that leaves seasoned Democratic strategist James Carville less than enthused.
Avila Chevalier, who benefited from the backing of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, emerged victorious in Tuesday’s primary election for New York’s 13th Congressional District. Her career is rooted in community organizing, yet she has a controversial past that includes founding a college group advocating for the complete dismantling of Western civilization.
In a Thursday interview with NewsNation, Carville was asked about the wave of electoral successes by far-left candidates in New York.
Although Carville downplayed the alarm, noting it pertained essentially to only three seats in New York, he emphasized that Avila Chevalier should not be linked to the Democratic Party.
“I really don’t think two of them are Democrats at all. This Chevalier woman, I don’t believe she belongs in the caucus. Her views starkly oppose the values of any Democrats. We stand for pluralism, and she, for instance, opposes interracial dating,” Carville remarked.
“I don’t think there’s a place in the party. I’m not, by the way, I’m not sure she wants to be a Democrat. Go do something else! Form your own party!”
NewsNation host Elizabeth Vargas noted that Avila Chevalier has called to abolish ICE and the police, stop all deportations, called veterans war criminals, and various other issues, asking, “Who is this person?”
“She is not a Democrat, okay?” Carville said. “That is pretty clear, and frankly, I think a lot of Democrats feel like I do. I don’t have any power, just an old washed-up consultant, but I wouldn’t seat her! This is not who we are!
“And we should just say, look, you’re duly elected, have your seat in Congress, but you would not be getting any committee assignments when the Democrats got the majority.”
He noted another commentator had observed that many politicians that hate the Democrats nonetheless run as part of their party.
“Why do you want to run as a Democrat?” he responded. “Start your own movement! If it’s such a powerful, sweeping movement that’s got more momentum everywhere, then go ahead, be at the head of it, don’t use the Democratic Party to advance it. We don’t have any interest in it.”
Vargas went on to note that there is a rising tide of antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment within the Democratic Party, asking Carville whether he agrees with Rep. Dan Goldman that this development represents a hazard to democracy itself.
“It’s disgusting, OK? And you’ve got to be careful not to conflate two things,” he warned.
“You can be hugely ‘anti-’ the policies of the government of Israel, which I would describe myself as one, but when you say ‘I don’t think Israel should exist,’ then I don’t have room for ya.”
“I have all the room in the world to criticize Israeli policies, to criticize the settlements — which I think are stupid and ignorant to start with, and they continue to be. You can criticize whether they reacted strategically to October the 7. That’s all fine. That’s all fine,” he said.
Where he draws the line, he said, is when a person is against the concept of Israel’s existence or is against Jewish people themselves as a group.
“You’ve got no place at my table, I can tell you that,” he said of such people. “But I think the smart political move is not to seat these people.”
When pressed on whether many left-wing people are representatives of the modern Democratic Party, Carville argued again that while they have the right to speak their mind, they should not identify themselves as Democrats.
“Just don’t invoke the name of the Democratic Party in doing that, because you’re really hurting the United States in the end,” he said.
Vargas juxtaposed Carville mentioning the more establishment Democratic agenda, as opposed to the far-left sentiments of “abolish everything and, you know, ‘free Palestine.’”
“Insane,” Carville said of those who espouse those ideals. “I’ve got no time for these people.”