Metro

Espaillat to challenge Rangel for Democratic nod

State Sen. Adriano Espaillat is announcing his second bid for Congress Thursday to dethrone longtime Harlem Rep. Charles Rangel.

Espaillat, 59, the uptown senator from Inwood-Washington Heights, nearly upset Rangel during their initial face-off in the 2012 Democratic primary.

“Adriano was an insurgent nobody thought could win two years ago. This time people think Adriano is going to win and they want to get behind a winner,” a source said.

Espaillat is expected to line up support from leaders who backed Rangel in the past.

Preacher Michael Walrond — who has close ties to Rev. Al Sharpton — also has thrown his hat in the ring.

Espaillat will launch his campaign during a noon event at the United Palace Theater in Washington Heights.

Rangel, 83, is seeking is his 23rd — and final — term in Congress. He’s held the seat since 1970.

But many Democratic Party, community and labor leaders expressed surprise that Rangel is running again, saying they were led to believe that the 2012 race would be his last hurrah.

The Democratic primary election is June 24.

The population in the congressional district has shifted from majority African-American to Hispanic. The district includes a small portion of the south Bronx as well as all of northern Manhattan — parts of the Upper West Side, Greater Harlem, and Washington Heights/Inwood.

Espaillat, born in the Dominican Republican and the first Dominican to serve in the New York Legislature, symbolizes the aspirations of the new wave of Latino immigrants. He has been a state legislator since 1997 serving in the Senate and Assembly.

Rangel, who is half black and half Puerto Rican, is the dean of the New York congressional delegation.

But the Korean War veteran’s legacy was stained was stained when Congress censured him in 2010 for a slew of ethics violations, including using a rent-stabilized apartment as his campaign office and failing to pay taxes on his Dominican Republic villa.

Rangel defeated Espaillat by only about 1,000 voters two years ago.