Personality

Ramzi Kassem and Darializa Avila Chevalier are a Mamdani World power couple. Photo illustration by Ben Taha and Peter Sterne. Source: Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images; Alexandra Chan

Meet New York City’s newest political power couple: Darializa Avila Chevalier and Ramzi Kassem. They’re proud Muslims living in Harlem who are pro-Palestinian, anti-ICE and friendly with Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

Kassem gained a measure of public recognition in December, when Mamdani tapped the 48-year-old lawyer to be his administration’s chief legal counsel. But all the attention now is on Avila Chevalier, the 32-year-old graduate student and public defense investigator who just upset Rep. Adriano Espaillat to win the Democratic nomination for a House seat in Upper Manhattan and the Bronx.

Avila Chevalier and Kassem have kept their relationship quiet; there’s almost no evidence online that the two of them have ever been in the same room together, let alone that they’re dating. His attendance at her primary night victory party went largely unnoticed. But multiple sources told City & State in recent weeks that the two are an item, which Avila Chevalier ultimately confirmed on Wednesday.

“Ramzi Kassem and I met outside an ICE detention facility, both working to free someone unjustly held,” she said in a statement. “Over the years, as we collaborated on different projects, our professional acquaintance became a friendship, which grew into a romantic relationship. I'm deeply grateful for such a loving, supportive partner – he's been a refuge these past few years. Like most couples, we value our privacy, and ask that it be respected.”

The couple first met in 2019, while Avila Chevalier was doing immigrant defense organizing with Families of Freedom. Kassem was also involved in that work through CLEAR, a legal clinic he founded at the City University of New York. Avila Chevalier later enrolled at the CUNY Graduate Center as a doctoral student in sociology. 

She never worked directly with Kassem – he was a professor at the law school in Queens, while she was a student in Manhattan – but the two continued to organize together. In 2020, he appeared on “They Are Just Deportees,” a podcast she co-hosted about the violence of the immigration system. In 2023, he helped her with a research paper analyzing the racism and Islamophobia of a Customs & Border Protection anti-terror unit. That same year, they started officially dating.

Both Avila Chevalier and Kassem are now firmly within Mamdani’s orbit. Avila Chevalier worked as a volunteer field lead for his 2025 mayoral campaign and received his endorsement for her congressional campaign at the end of May. Kassem speaks regularly with the mayor in his official capacity as chief counsel. 

Dora Pekec, a spokesperson for Mamdani, said that the mayor has been aware of their relationship for some time. And before Mamdani endorsed Avila Chevalier, Pekec said, he and Kassem had a personal discussion outside of City Hall, during which they discussed her campaign, among other topics.

“The Mayor has deep appreciation and respect for Chief Counsel Ramzi Kassem and his tireless service to the city, as well as for Darializa and the principled campaign she ran for Congress,” Pekec said. “The Mayor will honor their request for privacy and wishes them nothing but the best in their private lives.”