Mathewos Samson, the 27-year-old Democratic Socialist candidate, won a seat in the Georgia General Assembly Tuesday night.
Making history, Samson will be first Black member of the Democratic Socialists of America to serve in the Gold Dome. The software integration engineer was competing against Republican Torrey Balam to replace retiring state Rep. Park Cannon.
Samson’s platform included 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 told Capital B Atlanta during an interview in August. “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 legislature, joining state Rep. Gabriel Sanchez, D-Smyrna.
Samson said he joined the Democratic Socialists of America 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 said. “[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. Sanchez 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.
