Next Tuesday night, WNYC's Bridget Bergen and New York One's Aero Lewis and I will co-moderate a debate

among the five Democrats running for Gerald Nadler's seat as he retires from that Manhattan

district. We'll play excerpts here the next morning if you can't tune in Tuesday night.

Now we turn to New York's 13th congressional district in upper Manhattan

and the Bronx, where the incumbent Adriano Espiont is being challenged by activist Darya Lisa

Avila Chavale, who has the backing of Mayor Mamdani and the Democratic Socialists of America.

Chavallier had previously worked on Mamdani's mayoral campaign.

Espayat had endorsed Andrew Cuomo in the mayoral primary.

Avila Chavalei attended Columbia undergrad and is now studying for a doctorate in sociology at the

CUNY Graduate Center for a little bit of bio and working as an investigator

for the group Neighborhood Defender Services of Harlem. Congressman Esbayat has represented the

district since 2017. He served in the state legislature before that. He is chair of the

Congressional Hispanic Caucus and was the first formerly undocumented

immigrant elected to the House of Representatives. I imagine they'll talk more about each of their

respective bios and records as we go. The 13th Congressional District covers East Harlem and the

northernmost parts of the Upper West Side, then up through the rest of northern Manhattan,

and the adjacent area of the Bronx, including Morris Heights, University Heights, Kingsbridge Heights,

Bedford Park, and Fordham. According to Data USA, the population of the district is about

50% Latino, about a quarter black, about 15% white, and a third foreign born within those categories.

We will use Mr. and Ms. as we do in these formats, not people's titles.

So Mr. Espiat, Ms. Avila Chevalier, welcome, and thanks very much for engaging in this forum and in our electoral process.

Hello.

...