CAMBRIDGE, MA. — Tarik Samman, the Syrian American Democratic challenger running against House Minority Whip Katherine Clark in Massachusetts’s 5th Congressional District, today announced his campaign has raised more than $25,000 in the last week, a fundraising milestone that campaign officials called a strong signal of the growing energy around Samman’s campaign. 

Support poured in from across Massachusetts and the rest of the country, reflecting national enthusiasm for a candidate whose family story intersects directly with the foreign policy debates now dividing the Democratic Party.

“For too long, politicians in both parties have treated endless war and blank checks to Israel as if they have no cost on working families here at home. They do. 

I know what war costs because I have lived through a civil war in Syria. I also know that every dollar we spend fueling wars overseas is a dollar we are not investing in healthcare, childcare, housing, education, infrastructure, and working families here in Massachusetts. I am running to stop our spending on endless wars and redirect our taxpayer dollars towards investments at home.

The fact that our campaign raised more than $25,000 in one week shows that this message is resonating with many across Massachusetts and across the country.”

— Tarik Samman

Samman, 27, is a Harvard Law School researcher who grew up between Massachusetts, Syria, and Texas after his family was twice forced to flee. First in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, when rising Islamophobia made their life in the United States untenable, and again in 2014, when the Syrian civil war reached their home. He earned his undergraduate degree in political science from UC Irvine and a master’s degree in data science from Columbia University before returning to Massachusetts in 2022 to join Harvard Law School, where he became involved in building the Harvard Academic Workers union.

Samman has drawn the sharpest contrasts with Clark on foreign policy, calling for an end to U.S. weapons transfers to Israel, recognition of a Palestinian state, and a fundamental reorientation of U.S. Middle East policy. He has also staked out progressive positions on healthcare, housing, childcare affordability, academic freedom, and immigration. 

Clark, who has represented the district since 2013 and currently serves as House Minority Whip, the second-highest-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives, has not publicly responded to Samman’s entry into the race.

The campaign said it expects to announce additional fundraising milestones in the coming weeks as the September 1 primary approaches. Donors and volunteers can sign up at tarikforcongress.com.