Of the three New York City congressional candidates endorsed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani in Tuesday’s primary, Darializa Avila Chevalier was the weakest. A sociology doctoral student and doctrinaire leftist who has never held elected office, she was running against Adriano Espaillat, head of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. He’d built an uptown political machine known as the “squadriano” in New York’s 13th District, which includes Washington Heights, Harlem and parts of the Bronx.