But What Can You Do? tracks where 2026 candidates stand on U.S. weapons and funding for the government of Israel. How we check
Darializa Avila Chevalier
Democrat · U.S. House, New York District 13
✓Opposes
How this mark works
We track key votes on sending U.S. weapons and money to the government of Israel. A check means every tracked vote they cast came down against sending more, on the side of peace and de-escalation. A question mark means a mixed record: they sided with sending up to half of the time. An X means they voted to send more weapons and money in over half of their tracked votes, even as the way those weapons and dollars were being used became more and more obvious. At exactly half, money this election cycle from a lobbying group we track, or an endorsement from a group that backs sending weapons, makes it an X. Only votes actually cast are counted. Where a candidate has no recorded votes on these bills, the mark comes instead from a reviewed reading of their public record (money from the lobbying groups we track, endorsements, and their own words since January 26, 2024). There an X also covers fully backing the conduct of the war by the government of Israel without significant reservations, and a question mark also covers speaking about Israel without saying clearly where they stand on U.S. weapons and funding. A dash means No Position Found: we found nothing in their own words about Israel, Gaza or the war.
Two reviewers, reading the public record as a whole, agree: In a post opening with her fight for a free Palestine she says U.S. taxes should go home, not to bombs abroad, and her platform as quoted calls to stop all funding to the Israeli government. Reviewed by hand on 2026-10-01. This candidate has no recorded tracked floor votes.
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You asked Darializa Avila Chevalier where they stand.
Avila Chevalier is a CUNY doctoral student, community organiser and Democratic Socialists of America member who won the Democratic primary in New York’s 13th District on June 23, 2026, defeating the five-term incumbent Adriano Espaillat.
Her position on U.S. weapons is the centre of her campaign rather than an answer she gave when asked. The Guardian, read in full, records that she "made ‘babies, not bombs’ the signature pledge of her campaign". In an X post of June 19, 2026, which Newsweek quoted, she wrote: “I’ve fought for a free Palestine for years,” and “I’m an educator who has seen first hand how the kids in NYA-13 are getting the short end of the stick. I’m running to invest our taxes in our babies here at home, not in bombs to kill kids abroad.” Newsweek reports that her campaign platform has included calls to “stop all funding to the Israeli government”. CNN reports that among the 13 bills she has promised to cosponsor on her first day in Congress is the Block the Bombs Act, which would stop the unconditional transfer of offensive military weapons to Israel.
Newsweek reports that her platform also calls for divesting from what she describes as Israeli apartheid, and she helped organise the April 2024 Gaza Solidarity Encampment at Columbia.
She has no voting record; she has not held federal office.
In their words
“I’m an educator who has seen first hand how the kids in NYA-13 are getting the short end of the stick. I’m running to invest our taxes in our babies here at home, not in bombs to kill kids abroad.”
The notes behind this card: what we looked at, what we found, and where each item came from.
U.S. military aid and weapons to Israel
2026-06-19 [Current position]: Her X post of June 19, 2026, as quoted by Newsweek on 2026-06-25, in two passages the report separates with its own attribution: “I’ve fought for a free Palestine for years,” and “I’m an educator who has seen first hand how the kids in NYA-13 are getting the short end of the stick. I’m running to invest our taxes in our babies here at home, not in bombs to kill kids abroad.” The post itself was not opened. In the same report: "Her campaign platform has included calls to “stop all funding to the Israeli government” and to divest from what she describes as Israeli apartheid."
2026-08-24 [Current position]: CNN reports that her three top priorities on the campaign trail were housing for all, “babies not bombs,” and abolishing ICE, and that "Among the 13 bills she’s promised to cosponsor on her first day of Congress is Illinois Rep. Delia Ramirez’s Block the Bombs Act, which would stop the unconditional transfer of offensive military weapons to Israel." Two independent outlets, Newsweek and CNN, report the same position: ending U.S. weapons and funding for the government of Israel.
2026 [Current position]: The Guardian reports she "made 'babies, not bombs' the signature pledge of her campaign".
2026-06 [Current position]: On a WNYC primary candidate broadcast she argued the billions in annual U.S. military assistance to Israel should be redirected to domestic social safety nets in Upper Manhattan and the Bronx, including housing, public education and healthcare. The source page is the episode transcript. Not opened.
2026-06-23 and 2026-06-25 [Current position]: Reported to have reaffirmed, in her victory speech and at a press conference with Mayor Mamdani, a pledge to oppose weapons sales and military funding to Israel in Congress; the Times of Israel coverage of the press conference of 2026-06-25 was not opened for this card, and no words of hers are quoted from it.
U.S. aid to Palestinians
Nothing located as a distinct funding position. Her argument is about ending U.S. military aid and redirecting it domestically, not about U.S. humanitarian funding.
Characterization of the conflict
2026 [Current position; source unresolved]: She is reported to have publicly characterised Israel's military operations in Gaza as a "genocide" and described Israel as an "apartheid state". No source page carrying those words was located, so neither is used on the card or in the deep dive. Newsweek, above, reports that her platform calls for divesting from what she describes as Israeli apartheid.
2024-04 [Current position]: As a Columbia alumna she took part in and helped organise the April 2024 Gaza Solidarity Encampment, demanding an immediate ceasefire and university divestment. Divestment campaigns are named out of scope by the content rule; the encampment is recorded here as what she did.
2026-07-10 [Current position]: In an interview on The Beinart Notebook she said: "I think the targeting of civilians is wrong in any context, including on October 7."
2026-03 [Current position]: At a Broadway Democrats candidate forum she declined to explicitly condemn the October 7 attack when asked directly. Recorded because our research found it and because her July statement above bears on it.
2020 [Earlier record]: During the primary, outlets highlighted 2020 social media posts in which she reposted a comment stating "Israel doesn't exist" and called Joe Biden a "war criminal" over foreign policy. In a Vox interview of 2026-06-20 she said "I certainly wouldn't use a lot of the language that I used back then today." Earlier record by six years.
The October 8, 2023 rally
[Months after October 7, 2023, so on this page only. It was a major feature of her primary and it is recorded here in full, with each party's words attributed to that party.]
2023-10-08 [Months after October 7, 2023]: She attended a pro-Palestinian rally in Times Square the day after the October 7 attacks.
2026-06-04 and 2026-06 [Current position]: She defended her attendance to City & State and at a televised NY1 debate, saying she went because she anticipated an outsized reaction by Israeli forces that would cost thousands of civilian lives. The NY1 debate segment is a video with no retrievable text; a related NY1 post would not open.
2026-06-24 [Current position]: Per The Guardian, the rally was one "that some viewed as condoning Hamas violence, with Espaillat accusing her of celebrating the death of Israeli civilians immediately after the attack". Her response, verbatim: she "would never celebrate the death of any human being", and she attended because she knew Israel's response "would be an outsized reaction that would cause the deaths of thousands upon thousands of people".
2026-07-10 [Current position]: In the Beinart interview she said attendees at public protests may express views she does not endorse, and that her advocacy rests on international law, which "condemns the targeting of civilians" while opposing collective punishment.
**How the coverage frames it, recorded so a reader can weigh the sources.** Two outlets title their reports in the strongest terms: The Times of Israel of 2026-07-11 calls it a "pro-Hamas rally", and the Combat Antisemitism Movement of 2026-06-05 describes it as "celebrating Hamas massacre". The second is an advocacy organisation and never carries a card. The Jerusalem Post also covered it. Those are the outlets' characterisations, not findings, and none of them is adopted here.
Rhetoric and lobbying
[A money-and-lobbying argument must never read as a weapons or funding position. Her funding position is sourced separately above.]
2026-05 to 2026-06 [Current position]: She accused the incumbent of being "bought by the Israeli lobby" over his votes on military appropriations. The Guardian records that she criticised him as beholden to wealthy donors including AIPAC, "which in May reportedly poured $650,000 into a Super Pac opposing Avila Chevalier". That figure is the paper's reporting of spending against her, not a funding badge on this card.
2026-06-23 [Current position]: In her victory speech she said her win was a "clear mandate that the era of taking a check and cashing a check and calling it representation is over".
2026-07-10 [Current position]: In the Beinart interview she criticised what she called the "American war machine" and the "Israeli war machine" and the use of U.S. taxpayer funds to sustain foreign conflict.
[Context only, never the answer to what America sends.]
2026-06-24 [Current position]: Responding to allegations of antisemitism she said she "would never celebrate the death of any human being" and that her platform rests on universal human rights.
2026-07-10 [Current position]: She said her advocacy rests on international law condemning the targeting of civilians and opposing collective punishment.
What came back empty or unusable
Two localcandidates.org pages would not open and two YouTube urls carry no retrievable text; one NY1 Facebook post would not open.
Six of twenty sources are duplicates.
No campaign platform address appears anywhere in the sources found; the platform's wording on funding is quoted from Newsweek's report of it.
But What Can You Do? tracks where 2026 candidates stand on U.S. weapons and
funding for the government of Israel. Every claim on this page goes through at least two verification steps.
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