A growing number of Black Democrats who feel alienated by politics as usual within the party are finding common cause with Democratic Socialist activists who want the government to be more responsive to the needs of the working class.
Mathewos Samson, a 27-year-old software integration engineer, is competing against Republican Torrey Balam to replace retiring state House Rep. Park Cannon in the Georgia General Assembly. His June primary win in the dark-blue district makes him the odds-on favorite to become the first Black member of the Democratic Socialists of America to serve in the Gold Dome.
Samson’s platform includes getting corporate landlords out of the single-family home business by forcing them to sell the houses they’ve bought, not just capping the number they can own. He also supports Medicare for All and getting money out of politics.
“We don’t take money from corporations because we represent people’s interests,” Samson said. “We need to take our government back and have something that actually represents all of us.”
In June, he joined the ranks of at least 30 Democratic Socialists who have won Democratic Party primaries across the country this year. A November general election victory over Balam would make Samson the second Democratic Socialist elected to the Georgia General Assembly.
Samson said he joined the Democratic Socialists of America in October because he saw the work the organization was doing for underserved members of the city’s working class.
“Especially the Black working class, which has been left behind by a lot of its leaders,” he told Capital B Atlanta. “[Those leaders have] instead dedicated themselves to serving the interests of corporations, to serving the interests of developers, people who have seen the dire state of Black people in Atlanta and accepted that as something that is normal.”
What is the DSA?
The DSA is a political and activist organization that seeks to eliminate or more closely regulate capitalism in the United States, believing it to be a root cause of systemic oppression.
Its members want to reduce money in politics to minimize corporate influence over our elected leaders and institutions. They also want to give greater power to poor and working-class Americans struggling to live normal lives amid rising consumer costs.
The DSA supports progressive policies aimed at improving working people’s quality of life, such as Medicare for All and freezing rent prices. It has local chapters on college campuses and neighboring communities throughout the United States. Its Atlanta chapter was established about 20 years ago.
Disenchantment with establishment Democrats has fueled the popularity of DSA candidates across the nation. One of its leaders, state Rep. Gabriel Sanchez, D-Smyrna, estimates the Atlanta DSA’s ranks have grown from about 800 in 2024 when he launched his first campaign, to more than 2,000 members this year.
Its most famous members include U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Sanchez credits Black voters in his district with making him the first DSA member elected to the Georgia General Assembly. He said the popularity of DSA members like Mamdani and progressive policies like rent freezes are making DSA candidates more appealing than establishment Democrats in Georgia.
“I actually lost the white vote in 2024,” Sanchez told Capital B Atlanta. “You cannot win in most places in Georgia without Black support as a Democrat, and that includes the DSA.”
Historically, the DSA has been an overwhelmingly white organization, but its Black membership in Atlanta has more than doubled since 2024, according to Sanchez, rising to an estimated 25% to 30%, according to longtime member Devin Barrington-Ward, a former Atlanta City Council candidate.
“When the new leadership team came in, they were not afraid to really tackle and address some of those racial issues head on,” Ward told Capital B Atlanta. “It was also part of the reason why I felt comfortable with them supporting my candidacy in 2024. I saw what was a serious turnaround with what I had seen previously.”
In recent years, DSA activists have helped local Black renters battle abusive landlords and push back against data center construction. Nationally, the group has become an insurgent force in the evolving Democratic Party.
Darializa Avila Chevalier, who is Afro-Latino, and Donovan McKinney are among the Black DSA members who have won Democratic congressional primaries this year in addition to Samson. Avila Chevalier won in New York, while McKinney triumphed in Detroit.
Georgia State student Melanie Gipson, 25, said she previously volunteered for the Democratic Party but felt it was run by older people who talk down and marginalize young people like her. She said she joined DSA a month ago because the organization “fights for working people.”
“Whenever I spoke my opinions on how I think we should move forward, I felt like I was completely shut down, especially by the older people in the party,” Gibson said of Georgia Dems. “It was very much, ‘I know better. You should listen to me,’ and I felt like I didn’t really have a place. I think that was very different from the DSA.”
Winning Over Black Voters
Samson came in a distant second (39% to 29.4%) to fellow Democratic candidate Demetria Henderson on primary election day in May in a field of four contenders. But he secured a landslide victory over her (66.3% to 33.7%) during their runoff race in June.
He said his comeback win was accomplished after introducing himself to Black voters who weren’t familiar with him or the DSA.
The organization has earned a reputation — and occasional scorn — for being composed of young, educated progressives who are mostly white. Many of them live in largely gentrified, District 58 neighborhoods in northeast Atlanta, such as the Old Fourth Ward and Inman Park rather than majority-Black, working-class areas of the district’s southwest side, like Ben Hill, Adams Park, the West End.
Along with roughly 100 DSA volunteers, Samson spent time knocking on doors and attending community meetings in southwest Atlanta before and after primary election day.
“What it came down to was actually being able to spread the message, for me to be able to cover the whole district, for everybody in District 58 to know who I was and what I stood for,” Samson said. “[I’m] doing this because I really believe in serving them.”
Concerned Black Clergy President Shanan Jones said he was “very impressed” with Samson when he addressed the group’s members during a spring candidate forum.
“Samson is a brilliant young brother,” Jones told Capital B Atlanta. “I think DSA is going to challenge some of the positions of the more establishment Democratic Party, and traditional Black leadership in Atlanta. It’s going to be an interesting conversation.”
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