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Cait Conley has decided she wants the help of those who have pledged to abolish ICE, fought to defund the police, and co-founded a group that calls for the “total eradication of Western civilization.”

Pearl River, NY — 6/29/2026… Last Tuesday, three New York City socialists won their Congressional primaries: Brad Lander in NY-10, Claire Valdez in NY-7, and Darializa Avila Chevalier in NY-13. The very next day, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stated that she was looking forward to working with Cait Conley and her fellow socialists. Brad Lander said he was excited to campaign for Cait Conley in the Hudson Valley after winning in NY-10.

And Cait Conley’s response? “I welcome anyone here in this district.”

So who exactly is Cait Conley welcoming into the Hudson Valley?

Brad Lander (NY-10). In June 2020, Lander published an open letter with a title that says it all: “My commitment to working to defund the NYPD.” He called for cutting a billion dollars from the police budget. Recently, Brad stated he was looking forward to campaigning for Cait Conley in the Hudson Valley.

Claire Valdez (NY-7). Valdez calls herself a “proud democratic socialist,” and her own campaign website pledges that she will “fight to dismantle and abolish ICE.” She was arrested inside Senator Chuck Schumer’s Manhattan office in August 2025 while protesting U.S. arms sales to Israel. At a televised primary debate, she said Israel had committed “genocide” and said she would support arresting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on an International Criminal Court warrant if he set foot in New York.

Darializa Avila Chevalier (NY-13). Deleted tweets reviewed by CNN’s KFile show her calling to abolish the police, prisons, and borders, declaring “all deportation is wrong,” and reposting a message that “Israel doesn’t exist.” She also called President Biden a “rapist.” Darializa even attended the pro-Hamas Times Square rally on October 8, 2023, the day after October 7th, an event so widely condemned that fellow primary winner Brad Lander quit the DSA over the party’s promotion of it. At a March 2026 candidate forum, she declined to condemn Hamas’s October 7 attack when asked directly. She also co-founded Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), the campus group that later posted that it was fighting for the “total eradication of Western civilization.”

And Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14) herself, who has called to “Abolish ICE,” still champions defunding the police on her campaign website, and pledged at a March 2026 NYC-DSA forum to vote against any U.S. military aid to Israel, including defensive systems such as the Iron Dome, which she has previously voted against.

These are the people who Cait Conley wants to serve alongside and the same ones she would “welcome” into the Hudson Valley. Those are their words and their records.

Lawler for Congress Campaign Manager Ciro Riccardi offered the following response:

“Cait Conley just said the quiet part out loud – that she welcomes the support of New York City socialists in her campaign for Congress. Brad Lander, Claire Valdez, Darializa Avila Chevalier, and AOC are some of the most radical, card-carrying members of the Democratic Socialists of America, and Cait Conley wants to campaign alongside them. These are folks who want to defund the police, abolish ICE, work for the ‘total eradication of Western Civilization,’ get rid of prisons and borders, and even think Joe Biden is a rapist. If Cait thinks those are the values Hudson Valley voters are clamoring for, we wish her the best of luck in securing more six-figure contracts with big tech companies after losing in November.”

 

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