Less than six months ago, Mathewos Samson, 26, volunteered for the first time in his life to canvass for Democratic Socialist Kelsea Bond, who won their Atlanta City Council District 2 seat in a landslide last November. Now he’s running as a Democratic Socialist himself for Atlanta’s House District 58.
Last Saturday, he launched his campaign to a packed house at Manuel’s Tavern. “There’s a status quo for our politics, where they’re not putting working people at the forefront. I’m running on affordable housing, healthcare for everyone, and fully funding our schools,” Samson told a crowd of over 75 supporters at his March 28 launch party.
Samson only joined the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) last October to campaign for Bond. But on March 5, he woke up to urgent text messages from local DSA leaders asking him to run for HD 58 — just a day before the March 6 qualifying deadline. The heavily gerrymandered district snakes from Virginia Highlands southwest through the Old Fourth Ward, a slice of Inman Park, Downtown, West End, Adams Park, and ends in Ben Hill.
Atlanta DSA co-chair Brayan Ramírez had discovered the previous day that the safe blue seat’s incumbent, Rep. Park Cannon (D-Atlanta), had quietly decided to not seek reelection – and only one candidate, Demetria Henderson, had qualified for the Democratic primary on May 19.
Since HD 58 substantially overlaps with Bond’s Atlanta City Council district, Ramírez and other Atlanta DSA leaders saw a very real shot for a Democratic Socialist candidate to win the suddenly open primary. The insurgent progressive group scored its first legislative win in 2024 when Rep. Gabriel Sanchez (D-Smyrna) beat the longtime Democratic incumbent in House District 42 to become Georgia’s first — and so far only — Democratic Socialist in the legislature.
In a mad dash of phone calls and texts, Ramírez and local DSA secretary Nate Knauf, who’d managed Bond’s campaign, sought a DSA candidate for HD 58 — telling Samson it was “a political emergency” for him to run.
Samson, a software engineer, said he’d mused about running for office some day — but not this soon. Even so, he agreed, knowing he’d have Bond’s support. “We can’t pass up this opportunity,” he said.
Samson, the son of Ethiopian immigrants, is running on the slogan “Housing, Healthcare & an Economy for ALL.” His platform includes raising the Georgia minimum wage from $5.15 to $20 per hour and universal no-cost childcare.
He said the breakneck pace of gentrification in his Old Fourth Ward neighborhood from the Beltline, and then Wellstar Health System shuttering the nearby Atlanta Medical Center, made him realize that business-as-usual politics weren’t working. The DSA, he said, offered a vision he could believe in.
“DSA members, we don’t just get on the news and talk about an issue. We organize, we mobilize, we do more than just talk,” he said.
Knocking doors where he grew up
“It’s pretty crazy,” Samson said of his unexpected candidacy, while canvassing for the first time in the Old Fourth Ward on March 21, just two weeks after filing his qualifying paperwork. The campaign leaflets he handed out featured a photo of him at the State Capitol for the occasion, wearing the only suit and tie he owns. “The other candidates might have more suits than me,” he quipped.
Samson faces Henderson, along with two other Democrats, Edith Ladipo and Kyle Lamont, in the primary, while Republican Torrey Balam is running uncontested in the GOP primary. Since HD 58 is a deep blue district, the Democratic primary winner will likely win the seat.
Bond quickly endorsed Samson and turned out for his first canvass with nearly 30 other volunteers —- mostly DSA members. “This is such a slam dunk election. This is a left-wing district,” Bond told the volunteers, energizing them to knock doors.
“The more that we elect Democratic Socialists to office, the more we are able to demonstrate we are actually offering an alternative [to mainstream Democrats],” Bond said.
Countering the effects of gentrification was top of mind for a lot of Old Fourth Ward residents. “Old people can’t afford property taxes, and they have lived here for 50 years,” the DSA candidate’s father, Samson Gerbi, 60, said as he watched his eldest son knock on a neighbor’s door.
The loss of Atlanta Medical Center, the city’s only Level 1 trauma center besides Grady Memorial Hospital, was an issue for Corey Hendricks, who said Samson’s pitch at his doorstep has made him a supporter. “How are they [Wellstar] saying they were losing money when we’ve got more people in the area?” he asked.
Another neighbor, Shalanda Miller, said she was glad Samson wanted to reform Georgia’s Quality Basic Education (QBE) formula, which determines how the state funds public schools. She said the 1985 formula is out of date and wants more funding for poorer students. “There’s a school to prison pipeline, and we need education equity.”
At the Manuel’s launch party on March 28, Samson’s middle school math teacher, Mark Sanders, came out to support his former Atlanta Neighborhood Charter School student. “I’m so proud of him,” Sanders, who is now the school’s principal, said. “As school teachers, we want kids to be their best selves and contribute to a better world.”
