Meet Matthew Hoh

Who Matthew Hoh Is

North Carolina has been my home for years — a place that offered my family and me stability and a new beginning after long years of war. I spent ten years in the Marine Corps and deployed to war three times before I found the courage to speak out against those unjust, immoral, and counterproductive conflicts.

Since 2009 my work has gone beyond opposing the war machine to confronting the systemic political and financial decay that links the problems we face in North Carolina, throughout the United States, and around the globe. The harm is not confined to foreign wars: it also shows up in the attacks on working people, ongoing racial injustice, the War on Drugs, a for-profit healthcare system that treats need as a crime, an unsustainable housing crisis, and many other inequalities that hold back individuals, families, neighborhoods, and entire communities.

I love my country — and above all I love its people, and I see how much they are struggling. Many Americans say they want a third party in power because they understand how much today's political and financial systems hold us back, and how much better things could be.

Join this campaign to free our politics from the corrupt two-party system that answers to the wealthy, the banks, and the corporations. I would not be running unless it were necessary, and unless I believed we can reclaim, reimagine, and rebuild our political system.

Since 2013 I have maintained a blog where I share interviews and essays on a wide range of subjects. Visit MatthewHoh.com to learn more about me.

Why I'm Running for U.S. Senate

Matthew Hoh is running to represent North Carolina in the U.S. Senate on the Green Party ticket. To get NC Green Party candidates onto the ballot, we must gather 14,000 valid signatures by May 15, 2026.

In 2009, Matthew resigned in protest from his State Department post in Afghanistan over the American escalation of the war. Before that posting, he served during the American occupation of Iraq — first in 2004–5 in Salah ad Din Province with a State Department reconstruction and governance team, and later in 2006–7 in Anbar Province as a Marine Corps company commander. Between deployments, Matthew worked on Afghanistan and Iraq war policy and operations at the Pentagon and the State Department from 2002–8.

Matthew's writing has been published in online and print outlets such as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, CounterPunch, CNN, Defense News, the Guardian, the Huffington Post, Mother Jones, the Raleigh News & Observer, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. He has appeared as a guest on hundreds of radio and television news programs, including the BBC, CBS, CNN, CSPAN, Fox, NBC, MSNBC, NPR, Pacifica, and PBS. The Council on Foreign Relations has cited Matthew's resignation letter from his post in Afghanistan as an Essential Document.

In 2010, Matthew received the Ridenhour Prize for Truth Telling, and in 2021 the Committee for the Republic honored him as a Defender of Liberty. Matthew sits on the Board of Directors of the Institute for Public Accuracy and serves as an Advisory Board Member for the Committee to Defend Julian Assange and Civil Liberties, Expose Facts, the North Carolina Committee to Investigate Torture, The Resistance Center for Peace and Justice, Veterans For Peace, and World Beyond War.

Experience and Honors

Senior Fellow — Center for International Policy

Matthew has been a Senior Fellow at the Center for International Policy since 2010.

Ridenhour Prize Recipient — 2010

Matthew received the Ridenhour Prize for Truth Telling.

Media Appearances

Matthew has appeared as a guest on hundreds of news programs, including the BBC, CBS, CNN, CSPAN, Fox, NBC, MSNBC, NPR, and Pacifica.

Peer Support Specialist

Peer Support Specialist for Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder.

Join the Movement

Let's build political independence together.