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Malcolm Kenyatta
Pennsylvania
"A New Day in Pennsylvania"
2022 midterms
“One way to ensure a government that works for working people is to actually elect working people”
As the first openly LGBTQ+ person of color and one of the youngest members of Pennsylvania’s general assembly, Malcolm Kenyatta is a trailblazer. But not everyone welcomed him into the political fold with open arms. In 2018 he won a five-way primary to become the Democratic House nominee for the 181st district of Pennsylvania despite homophobic attacks from his opponents. Kenyatta has a long history of community activism, starting at age 11 when he began as a junior block captain in the Philadelphia Streets program. His sense of obligation to his community has continued throughout his life, and he has served on the boards of Equality Pennsylvania, Liberty City LGBT Democratic Club, and the Philadelphia branch of the National Organization for Women. In 2021, Kenyatta was selected for the OUT 100, a list of barrier-breaking LGBTQ+ individuals from around the world, as a lifelong “community champ.” In 2020, he became one of the first three openly gay individuals to give a joint keynote address at the Democratic National Convention, and stood on the stage with his fiancé Dr. Matthew Miller. But despite his achievements and accolades today, he is no stranger to struggle. Kenyatta grew up with his parents being served eviction notices and supported his family by working minimum-wage jobs. His youth inspired him to push for social welfare programs, calling poverty “the moral and economic issue of our generation.” Kenyatta also believes in the power of the arts to give a voice to the unheard, and in 2015 co-directed Dr. Kimmika Williams-Witherspoon’s play You Gotta Eat Dirt Before You Die, a show about a family during the 1980s AIDS epidemic.
As a lawmaker, his key votes have mostly concerned criminal justice. He voted in favor of a bill to require background checks for police officers and another to authorize professional trade licenses for ex-convicts. He voted against a bill that would have authorized school police officers to make arrests. In the hours following the court decision that convicted former police officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd, Kenyatta tweeted, “Our work to dismantle systemic racism at every level of our society, especially the criminal justice system, is far from over. Every day, Black and brown people continue to be unfairly targeted by police and have to worry about whether their lives are at risk simply for existing.”
Malcolm Kenyatta is clearly beloved in his hometown of Philadelphia, but if that local name recognition will translate into a statewide win remains to be seen.
—Caitlin Lent
Caitlin Lent is a staff writer and media director for Weekly Senator. She is also a photographer and filmmaker. Born and raised in Deep River, Connecticut, she now lives and works in New York City.
Policy Positions
Criminal Justice Reform
“As a poor Black kid in Philadelphia, Malcolm was surrounded by a justice system that prioritized punishment over safety, leading to both increased arrests and increased poverty. We can make Pennsylvania safer by implementing reform in our criminal justice system, prioritizing the wellbeing and safety of everyone by bolstering our social safety net and empowering mental healthcare workers, and focusing police officers on identifying and prosecuting real bad actors.” (malcolmkenyatta.com)
Climate Change
“As a Pennsylvania co-chair of Climate Power, Malcolm knows that creating sustainable communities and building good-paying green jobs goes hand and hand. Our planet is rapidly approaching the point of no return as global temperatures continue to rise. The United States must lead the world in responding to the climate crisis on the scale, scope, and urgency this moment requires.” (malcolmkenyatta.com)
Reproductive Rights
“Everyone should have control over their bodies, including access to reproductive and sexual healthcare and abortion, regardless of their zip code, ethnicity, or income. We know that there are forces actively seeking to reverse Roe v. Wade and to get rid of funding for women’s health if it’s through the ACA or taking funding from organizations like Planned Parenthood and this is unacceptable. Malcolm is an unapologetically pro-choice candidate.” (malcolmkenyatta.com)
Endorsements
LGBTQ Victory Fund
Planned Parenthood Pennsylvania PAC
Working Families Party
Sierra Club
Pennsylvania AFL-CIO
Federation of Teachers
2022 midterms
Pat Toomey is retiring, but he’s doing it with a bang — by voting for the impeachment of Donald Trump. Before breaking with the Republican rank and file, Toomey could have been the party’s poster child. With his Harvard education and career as a banker (he only left the business once his firm was acquired by Deutsche Bank, citing a “less flexible and entrepreneurial work environment”), Toomey was well-equipped for a long legislative career of cutting corporate taxes and dismantling the social safety net. In 2001, Toomey proposed a budget that would cut mostly corporate taxes worth $2.2 trillion over ten years, far exceeding George W. Bush’s $1.6 trillion plan that was popular with more moderate Republicans at the time. Not only has he voted to disintegrate the Affordable Care Act as many times as it has come up in chamber, he also opposed the bipartisan Medicare Prescription Drug Act, pointing to its alleged “fiscal irresponsibility.” As a senator, Toomey voted for a bill that would have banned abortions after 20 weeks with no exceptions for the health of those who are pregnant. Toomey believes that society should only honor marriages between “one man and one woman,” and rejects climate science. More recently, Toomey took to Twitter to scoff at Democratic attempts to lift the country out of the economic crisis brought on by Covid-19: “In 2020, state and local governments took in record revenues, far outpacing their projections. On top of that, the federal government gave them an additional ~$500B. Now Democrats want to keep bailing out fundamentally insolvent blue states and disguise it as Covid relief.” This is particularly rich (pun intended), given that blue state economies, particularly California and New York, prop up the economies of dozens of bankrupt red states.
State: Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania is the home of many firsts. It was one of the first states in the nation, and its capital city, Philadelphia, played host to the country’s first library, hospital, and medical school. Steeped in history, Pennsylvania contains 169 National Historic Landmarks and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Independence Hall in Philadelphia. Pennsylvania has been a powerful swing state throughout the 20th century, though in recent years has leaned Democratic, with the exception of 2016, when the state went decisively for Donald Trump. Pennsylvania’s political story is that of liberal strongholds in cities like Pittsburgh, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, and Philadelphia; and conservative supermajorities in rural areas. One of the major political fault lines in Pennsylvania is the presence of coal mining and fracking, two industries that employ many in the state but are also huge contributors to climate change. Joe Biden promised in the run up to the 2020 Democratic primary not to ban fracking in a bid to appeal to rural Pennsylvania Democrats, at the expense of the support of many progressives in the state. Pat Toomey, the retiring incumbent, was largely unpopular with Pennsylvanians and only won his last election by one and a half percent, leaving the seat highly competitive and ripe for Democratic victory.
