Malcolm Kenyatta (born July 30, 1990) is an American politician from
North Philadelphia
North Philadelphia, nicknamed North Philly, is a section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is immediately north of Center City. Though the full extent of the region is somewhat vague, "North Philadelphia" is regarded as everything north of either ...
,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
. A member of the
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to:
*Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to:
Active parties Africa
*Botswana Democratic Party
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, he has served as the
Pennsylvania State Representative
The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Pennsylvania General Assembly, the legislature of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. There are 203 members, elected for two-year terms from single member districts.
It ...
for the
181st district since 2019.
Early life and education
Kenyatta was born to the late Kelly Kenyatta and the late Malcolm J. Kenyatta, at
Temple University Hospital
Temple University Hospital (TUH) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is an academic medical center in the United States which is a part of the healthcare network Temple Health. It is the chief clinical training site for the Temple University School of ...
in North Central Philadelphia. He has three adopted siblings. Kenyatta is the grandson of the civil rights activist
Muhammad I. Kenyatta.
Kenyatta earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in strategic communication 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 calle ...
and a Master of Science in public communication from
Drexel University. During college, Kenyatta organized student protests against proposed education budget cuts by then-Governor
Tom Corbett
Thomas Wingett Corbett Jr. (born June 17, 1949) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 46th governor of Pennsylvania from 2011 to 2015. A member of the Republican Party, he served as Attorney General of Pennsylvania from 1995 t ...
.
During college, Kenyatta was also an avid poet and performer. In 2008, with the help of theater professor Kimmika Williams-Witherspoon, he founded the award-winning poetry collective Babel, which has twice won the
College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational The College Union Poetry Slam Invitational (CUPSI) is an annual Poetry Slam tournament put on by the Association of College Unions International (ACUI) in which teams of four or five college students from different colleges and universities compete ...
.
Kenyatta completed
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
's
John F. Kennedy School of Government
The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...
program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government as a David Bohnett Fellow.
Career
Kenyatta has been engaged in community affairs and politics since he was eleven years old, serving as the junior block captain with the Philadelphia Streets program.
Kenyatta has worked as a community activist, specifically around issues of poverty, which he has called "the moral and economic issue of our generation." He worked as a political consultant on multiple state and local races, most notably as the campaign manager for lawyer and activist Sherrie Cohen, the daughter of longtime city councilman
David Cohen, in her 2015 bid for the
Philadelphia City Council.
Kenyatta backed
Joe Biden in the
2020 Democratic presidential primaries
Presidential primaries and caucuses were organized by the Democratic Party to select the 3,979 pledged delegates to the 2020 Democratic National Convention held on August 17–20 to determine the party's nominee for president in the 2020 Unit ...
and has been critical of
Bernie Sanders. He does not support an immediate transition to
Medicare for All
Single-payer healthcare is a type of universal healthcare in which the costs of essential healthcare for all residents are covered by a single public system (hence "single-payer").
Single-payer systems may contract for healthcare services from ...
, noting that he would support interim bipartisan measures instead.
Kenyatta supports abolishing the United States Senate
filibuster.
In 2016 and 2020, he was elected as a delegate to the
Democratic National Convention. He was selected as one of seventeen speakers to jointly deliver the
keynote address at the
2020 Democratic National Convention
The 2020 Democratic National Convention was a presidential nominating convention that was held from August 17 to 20, 2020, at the Wisconsin Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and virtually across the United States. At the convention, delegates of ...
. This made him,
Sam Park, and
Robert Garcia the first openly-gay speakers in a keynote slot at a Democratic National Convention.
Kenyatta was one of 20 electors selected by the
Pennsylvania Democratic Party
The Pennsylvania Democratic Party is the affiliate of the Democratic Party in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is headquartered in Harrisburg and is the largest political party in the state. Its chair is Senator Sharif Street.
Governor Tom Wo ...
to vote in the
Electoral College for
Joe Biden and his running mate
Kamala Harris
Kamala Devi Harris ( ; born October 20, 1964) is an American politician and attorney who is the 49th vice president of the United States. She is the first female vice president and the highest-ranking female official in U.S. history, as well ...
in
2020 United States presidential election.
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
In December 2017, Kenyatta announced his campaign for the
Pennsylvania House of Representatives to replace the long-serving incumbent
Curtis Thomas. He won a five-way Democratic party primary election in May 2018 with 42.1% of the vote. The night of the election, unidentified people set up
homophobic
Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being lesbian, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred or antipathy, m ...
posters of him and his ex-husband throughout the district.
Kenyatta won the general election in November against Republican opponent
Milton Street
Thomas Milton Street Sr. (April 25, 1941 – November 28, 2022) was an American businessman, a Pennsylvania state senator from Philadelphia, and the brother of former Philadelphia mayor John F. Street. Originally a street hot dog vendor, he ro ...
with 95.3% of the vote. The win made him one of the youngest elected State Representatives in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the first openly-LGBTQ person of color elected to either chamber of the
Pennsylvania General Assembly in the state's history.
2022 United States Senate campaign
On February 18, 2021, Kenyatta announced his bid for the
United States Senate
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 pow ...
in the
2022 Democratic primary. He lost the Democratic nomination to Lieutenant Governor
John Fetterman
John Karl Fetterman (born August 15, 1969) is an American politician who is the United States senator-elect from Pennsylvania. A member of the Democratic Party, he has also served as the 34th lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania since 2019. Fe ...
, winning only 10.9% of the vote and also losing his home county.
Recognition
In 2017, Kenyatta was named as one of
''Philadelphia'' Magazine's 38 "people we love" as a "neighborhood champ."
Kenyatta was the subject of an award-winning documentary, ''Going Forward'', which followed his 2018 victory.
''
The Philadelphia Tribune
''The Philadelphia Tribune'' is the oldest continuously published African-American newspaper in the United States.
The paper began in 1884 when Christopher J. Perry published its first copy. Throughout its history, ''The Philadelphia Tribune' ...
'' called Kenyatta one of Philadelphia's most influential African-Americans.
In 2020, Kenyatta was named an OUT 100 Honoree by
''OUT'' Magazine, their annual list of the most "impactful and influential LGBTQ+ people". In the same year, he was awarded the
Sen. Tammy Baldwin Breakthrough Award.
Electoral history
References
External links
*
Official website for 2022 US Senate campaign
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kenyatta, Malcolm
1990 births
2020 United States presidential electors
21st-century American politicians
African-American state legislators in Pennsylvania
Gay politicians
LGBT African Americans
LGBT state legislators in Pennsylvania
Living people
Democratic Party members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Politicians from Philadelphia
Temple University alumni
21st-century African-American politicians
Candidates in the 2022 United States Senate elections