Kendra Nicole Brooks is an American politician and activist. She won a citywide at-large election in the

Philadelphia City Council The Philadelphia City Council, the legislative body of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, consists of ten members elected by district and seven members elected at-large. The council president is elected by the members from among their number. Each ...

as a member of the

Working Families Party The Working Families Party (WFP) is a minor political party in the United States, founded in New York in 1998. There are active chapters in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Nev ...

(WFP) on November 5, 2019. The Council has seven at-large seats that go to the highest overall vote-getters, two seats are reserved for a minority party. Brooks's election is the first time a representative of a minor party won a seat on the council since the creation of the modern version of City Council in 1919.

Early life and education

Kendra Nicole Brooks was born in the

Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

and raised in Nicetown,

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. She studied at

Community College of Philadelphia The Community College of Philadelphia (CCP) is a public community college with campuses throughout Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The college was founded in 1965 and is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. It offers over 1 ...

and worked as a nursing assistant. She later received a

Bachelors of Science Bachelors of Science is the stage name of Phil "Rene" Collis, Chris Doe and Lukeino Argilla. They met in California and formed a successful act, quickly becoming one of the top drum and bass producers in the electronic music scene. Focusing pri ...

therapeutic recreation Recreational therapy or therapeutic recreation (TR) is a systematic process that utilizes recreation (leisure) and other activities as interventions to address the assessed needs of individuals with illnesses and/or disabling conditions, as a mea ...

from

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist minister Russell Conwell and his congregation Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia then called Ba ...

and an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

in management from Eastern University.

Career

Brooks worked with children with disabilities at Easter Seals for 17 years. Due to budget cuts, she was terminated, but remained on the school advisory council of her children's school, and became a neighborhood and educational activist. She also worked with the Parents United for Public Education and the Our City Our Schools coalitions, is on the Steering Committee of 215 People's Alliance, and founded Stand Up Nicetown, a group committed to ending gun violence. For this activism, she was placed on

Philadelphia Mayor The mayor of Philadelphia is the chief executive of the government of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as stipulated by the Charter of the City of Philadelphia. The current mayor of Philadelphia is Jim Kenney. History The first mayor of Philadelphia, ...

Jim Kenney James Francis Kenney (born August 7, 1958) is an American politician who is the 99th Mayor of Philadelphia. Kenney was first elected on November 3, 2015, defeating his Republican rival Melissa Murray Bailey after winning the crowded Democratic ...

's nominating committee for the new Board of Education. Brooks and Nicolas O'Rourke, a pastor, worked with the Pennsylvania chapter of the WFP to fundraise and organize a

get out the vote "Get out the vote" or "getting out the vote" (GOTV) describes efforts aimed at increasing the voter turnout in elections. In countries that do not have or enforce compulsory voting, voter turnout can be low, sometimes even below a third of the ...

campaign for the Council race. Due to longstanding tradition, Brooks, O'Rourke, and the WFP activists faced resistance from not only the Republican Party, but also the Philadelphia Democratic establishment, as many expected the remaining two at-large seats to continue to go to Republicans. Philadelphia's seven at-large council seats are determined by

limited voting Limited voting (also known as partial block voting) is a voting system in which electors have fewer votes than there are positions available. The positions are awarded to the candidates who receive the most votes absolutely. In the special case ...

, where voters casting five equally-weighted ballots for five candidates, and the overall top-five finishers (recently presumed to always be Democrats) are joined by the top two vote-getters from a minority party (recently always the Republican party), regardless of actual finish placement as per the

Home Rule Charter Home rule is government of a colony, dependent country, or region by its own citizens. It is thus the power of a part (administrative division) of a state or an external dependent country to exercise such of the state's powers of governance wit ...

of 1951. Thus, for the WFP candidates, some Democratic-leaning voters would have to limit their ballots to only three Democrats to cast their votes for Brooks and O'Rourke, which rankled Democratic party leaders who saw this as an opportunity for the Republicans to gain more than the two seats allotted.

Bob Brady Robert A. Brady (born April 7, 1945) is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for from 1998 to 2019. He was the ranking Democrat and Chairman of the United States House Committee on House Administration from 2007 to 2019. ...

, former

United States Representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

and Chair of the Democratic City Committee, called for committee members and ward leaders who campaigned for non-Democrats to be expelled from the party. Brooks was endorsed by Council At-Large member

Helen Gym Helen Gym ( ; ko, 김혜련, born January 11, 1968) is an American politician. The daughter of Korean immigrants, she was the first Asian American woman to serve on the Philadelphia City Council. She was first elected to Council in 2015 and ser ...

, Philadelphia District Attorney

Larry Krasner Lawrence Samuel Krasner (born March 30, 1961) is an American lawyer who is the 26th District Attorney of Philadelphia. Elected to the position in 2017, Krasner was one of the first in the United States to run as a self-described "progressive pros ...

, Pennsylvania State Representatives

Chris Rabb Christopher M. Rabb (born February 21, 1970) is an American politician, professor, and author. A Democrat, he is a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, representing the 200th District since 2017. In a heavily Democratic district ...

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, Movita Johnson-Harrell,

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, and Massachusetts

US Senator The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powe ...

Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth Ann Warren ( née Herring; born June 22, 1949) is an American politician and former law professor who is the senior United States senator from Massachusetts, serving since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party and regarded as a ...

. Brooks was also endorsed by the Pennsylvania chapter of Make the Road, and the Philadelphia chapters of the

Democratic Socialists of America The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is a Left-wing politics, left-wing Democratic Socialists of America#Tendencies within the DSA, multi-tendency Socialism, socialist and Labour movement, labor-oriented political organization. Its roots ...

UNITE HERE UNITE HERE is a labor union in the United States and Canada with roughly 300,000 active members. The union's members work predominantly in the hotel, food service, laundry, warehouse, and casino gaming industries. The union was formed in 2004 by ...

, and

Sunrise Movement Sunrise Movement is an American 501(c)(4) political action organization that advocates political action on climate change. When launched in 2017, the movement's goal was to elect proponents of renewable energy in the 2018 midterm elections, fi ...

. Brooks and her campaign raised more money for a third-party candidate in a Philadelphia City-wide election than any previous candidate. She relied on small dollar donations as approximately two thirds of her donations were for $50 or less. In the November 5, 2019, election, Brooks came in 6th overall in the at-large race, with 55,599 votes, almost 6,000 more than 7th place finisher and top Republican vote-getter, incumbent David Oh, and over 11,000 votes ahead of 8th place Republican vote-getter,

Al Taubenberger Alfred W. Taubenberger (born 1953) is an American politician and businessman. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as an at-large member of the Philadelphia City Council from 2016 to 2020. Greater Northe ...

, ensuring her a place on the Council.

Political positions

Brooks supports creating and preserving more

affordable housing Affordable housing is housing which is deemed affordable to those with a household income at or below the median as rated by the national government or a local government by a recognized housing affordability index. Most of the literature on affo ...

and expanding

rent control Rent regulation is a system of laws, administered by a court or a public authority, which aims to ensure the affordability of housing and tenancies on the rental market for dwellings. Generally, a system of rent regulation involves: *Price cont ...

, and is supportive of a

Green New Deal Green New Deal (GND) proposals call for public policy to address climate change along with achieving other social aims like job creation and reducing economic inequality. The name refers back to the New Deal, a set of social and economic refo ...

for Philadelphia.

Personal life

Brooks lives in Nicetown, Philadelphia with her four children.

References

External links