Tarik Samman emphasizes a values-driven approach to politics in his congressional campaign

Cambridge’s Tarik Samman is one of three candidates running in the Massachusetts 5th District congressional primary. He and Jonathan Paz, of Waltham, are challenging Rep. Katherine Clark, Democratic Whip in the U.S. House of Representatives. 

When Samman filed with the Federal Election Commission on Nov. 15, it was his first foray into the world of campaigning. He had thought of running for office before, but he decided to make the leap now because of his concerns about the current political climate. Samman said he’s inspired by his family’s journey as Syrian immigrants in America. 

Samman said voters who want to understand him need to understand his family’s story. His father moved to Massachusetts from Syria in the 1980s to escape the Islamist uprising and pursue the American dream. After college, Samman’s father moved back to Syria, married Samman’s mother and returned to Massachusetts, where Samman and his siblings were born.

Feeling unsafe due to the rise in Islamophobia after 9/11, Samman and his family returned to Syria only to move to Texas in 2011 to escape the Syrian civil war. After finishing high school in Texas, Samman moved to California and attended Irvine Valley College for two years. He graduated from the University of California, Irvine in 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in political science with a focus on international relations.

After graduating college, Samman worked as an Uber driver during the COVID-19 pandemic while searching for a job in his field. While the pandemic made him feel isolated, he says it created opportunities to slow down and reflect. Samman said he remembers watching the news on May 25, 2020, and observing the creation of the Black Lives Matter movement after the murder of George Floyd. Through this, he learned an important lesson. 

“A small change in America can have a big effect around the globe. If you want to change the world, you have to start with Rome and Rome today is America,” Samman said.

Despite this revelation, Samman still did not see himself running for office. He received his master’s degree in data science with a focus on social sciences from Columbia University in June 2022. In October of that year, he moved back to Massachusetts to take a research position at Harvard Law School. Samman described returning to Massachusetts for the first time since he was a child like a “return to the motherland.” 

Samman became involved with the Harvard Academic Workers union and helped build its website and collect signatures to get the union off the ground. He said international students feared getting involved with such social movements. At the time he didn’t understand why. However, he said the Israel-Hamas war gave him insights into their fears. 

“The Palestinian genocide and the student movement at Harvard, the attacks on student activism, on academic freedom … I started to see the fear that pushed my family to leave Massachusetts and move back to the Middle East,” Samman said. 

That led Samman to run for the Massachusetts 5th Congressional District seat. 

“You either step up and fight for your country or you flee or isolate yourself from politics,” he said.

A focus on values

Before starting his campaign, Samman did significant exploratory work. He knocked on doors and spoke with trusted experts, including Marshall Ganz, a grassroots organizer and Harvard University professor who had worked on the Obama campaign.

Samman said Ganz advised him to base his campaign on values rather than specific policy stances. Samman said he believes this helps constituents know where he stands on all issues without having to speculate. 

“If you are quite sure of my values and principles, you’ll know exactly how I’m going to vote,” he said.

According to Samman’s platform, housing is a basic human right. He values access to affordable child care, sensible and humane foreign policy, and putting people first before artificial intelligence. Samman plans to create a parent advisory board so parents can directly communicate with him about issues relevant to them. He also plans to create a constituent service office that provides swift response to reports of what he believes is unconstitutional ICE activity. 

“You need to be fast, you need to be active on the ground to save the immigrant,” Samman said.

Samman said his involvement in academia has influenced his values as well. Since the congressional district has a high density of universities and university students, education without barriers and burdens is a priority for him. Watching Harvard University students disciplined for protesting the Israel-Hamas war and the Trump administration pull funding from universities is unacceptable to him. 

“This district is one of the most educated districts in the country. If you’re representing a district that’s very educated, that values freedom of speech, that values academic freedom, you should represent this in Congress as well,” Samman said.

While Samman understands the gravity of running against the second-highest ranking Democrat in the house, he wants to make one thing clear: “I don’t view this as a run against Katherine Clark. I view it as a run against the status quo of the Democratic Party.” 

He said he agrees with Clark on many issues but accused her of having a lack of presence and leadership, a problem he said is emblematic of the status quo. 

He also said he hopes that midterm elections will bring not just him to Congress but a new wave of Democrats with values similar to his.

Samman holds an 11 a.m. coffee hour chat at Luxor Cafe in Cambridge each Saturday and is planning on holding coffee hours in other communities in the future, saying it ensures that he will hear from all types of people throughout the district so that he can represent their interests and needs.

If elected, Samman intends to hold regular office hours outside of business hours so that working people can attend and get in direct contact with him. He also wants to make sure that Americans can feel hopeful for their future and the future of their country. 

“It’s a very important thing that our country is unfortunately lacking,” he said.