Malcolm Kenyatta (born July 30, 1990) is an American politician from the

North Philadelphia North Philadelphia, nicknamed North Philly, is a section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is immediately north of Center City, Philadelphia, Center City. Though the full extent of the region is somewhat vague, "North Philadelphia" is regarded as ...

neighborhood of Philadelphia,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

. A member of the Democratic Party, he serves as the Pennsylvania state representative for the 181st district. He was the Democratic nominee for

Pennsylvania Auditor General The Pennsylvania auditor general is the chief fiscal officer of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It became an elected office in 1850. The current auditor general of Pennsylvania is Republican Timothy DeFoor. History The office of the audito ...

in the 2024 election, and in February 2025 was elected vice chair of the

Democratic National Committee The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is the principal executive leadership board of the United States's Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party. According to the party charter, it has "general responsibility for the affairs of the ...

. In June of the same year, he along with vice chair

David Hogg David Miles Hogg (born April 12, 2000) is an American gun violence in the United States, gun control activist who served as a co-vice chair of the Democratic National Committee from February to June 2025. He rose to prominence during the 2018 ...

were removed from their positions pending a new election.

Early life and education

Kenyatta was born to Kelly Kenyatta and Malcolm J. Kenyatta, at

Temple University Hospital Temple University Hospital (TUH) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is an academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's 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 university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist ministe ...

and a Master of Science in public communication from

Drexel University Drexel University is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Drexel's undergraduate school was founded in 1891 by Anthony Joseph Drexel, Anthony J. Drexel, a financier ...

. 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, lobbyist, and former prosecutor who served as the 46th governor of Pennsylvania from 2011 to 2015. A member of the Republican Party, he was also attorney general of Pen ...

. 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. Kenyatta completed a

Harvard Kennedy School of Government The John F. Kennedy School of Government, commonly referred to as Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), is the school of public policy of Harvard University, a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard Kennedy School offers master's de ...

three-week executive education program, Senior Executives in State and Local Government, as a David Bohnett Fellow in 2019.

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 The Philadelphia City Council is the legislative body of the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States. It is composed of 17 councilmembers: ten members elected by district and seven members elected at-large from throughou ...

. Kenyatta backed

Joe Biden Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...

in the

2020 Democratic presidential primaries Presidential primaries and caucuses were organized by the Democratic Party to select delegates to the 2020 Democratic National Convention to determine the party's nominee for president in the 2020 election. The primaries and caucuses took p ...

and has been critical of

Bernie Sanders Bernard Sanders (born September8, 1941) is an American politician and activist who is the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States Senate, United States senator from the state of Vermont. He is the longest-serving independ ...

. 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 pr ...

, noting that he would support interim bipartisan measures instead. Kenyatta supports abolishing the United States

Senate filibuster A filibuster is a tactic used in the United States Senate to delay or block a vote on a measure by preventing debate on it from ending. The Senate's rules place few restrictions on debate. In general, if no other senator is speaking, a senator ...

. In 2016 and 2020, he was elected as a delegate to the

Democratic National Convention The Democratic National Convention (DNC) is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1832 by the United States Democratic Party. They have been administered by the Democratic National Committee since the 18 ...

. He was selected as one of seventeen speakers to jointly deliver the

keynote A keynote in public speaking is a talk that establishes a main underlying theme. In corporate or commercial settings, greater importance is attached to the delivery of a keynote speech or keynote address. The keynote establishes the framework fo ...

address at the

2020 Democratic National Convention The 2020 Democratic National Convention was a United States presidential nominating convention, presidential nominating convention that was held from August 17 to 20, 2020, at the Wisconsin Center in Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and virtual ...

. This made him,

Sam Park Samuel Lauderdale Park (born October 1, 1985) is an American politician and lawyer, who was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in the 2016 elections.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. As of 2025, i ...

to vote in the

Electoral College An electoral college is a body whose task is to elect a candidate to a particular office. It is mostly used in the political context for a constitutional body that appoints the head of state or government, and sometimes the upper parliament ...

for

and his running mate

Kamala Harris Kamala Devi Harris ( ; born October 20, 1964) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 49th vice president of the United States from 2021 to 2025 under President Joe Biden. She is the first female, first African American, and ...

2020 United States presidential election United States presidential election, Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 3, 2020. The Democratic Party (United States), Democratic ticket of former vice president Joe Biden and California junior senator Kamala H ...

. In April 2023, Biden appointed Kenyatta as chair of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence and Economic Opportunity for Black Americans.

Pennsylvania House of Representatives

In December 2017, Kenyatta announced his campaign for the

Pennsylvania House of Representatives 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 ...

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 identify or are perceived as being lesbian, Gay men, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred, or ant ...

posters of him and his ex-husband throughout the district. Kenyatta won the general election in November against Republican opponent Milton Street 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 The Pennsylvania General Assembly is the legislature of the U.S. commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The legislature convenes in the State Capitol building in Harrisburg. In colonial times (1682–1776), the legislature was known as the Pennsylvani ...

in the state's history. Despite running in the 2022 Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, Kenyatta also remained on the primary ballot for re-election to 181st district, for which he ran unopposed in both the primary and general elections.

2022 United States Senate campaign

On February 18, 2021, Kenyatta announced his bid for the

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

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 serving as the senior United States senator from Pennsylvania, a seat he has held since 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, he served from 2006 to 2019 as the mayor o ...

, winning only 10.9% of the vote and also losing his home county.

2024 Auditor General campaign

On March 8, 2023, Kenyatta announced his candidacy to be Pennsylvania's Auditor General. Kenyatta was the first Democrat to announce a bid to challenge the incumbent Auditor General, Timothy DeFoor. He defeated Lehigh County Controller Mark Pinsley in the Democratic primary election. During the primary, Kenyatta faced criticism after he was caught on camera claiming Pinsley did not "like Black people." His victory made Kenyatta the first openly gay man nominated by any major party for any statewide office in Pennsylvania. Among his priorities, Kenyatta has stated that as auditor general he would create a bureau of worker safety and restart school audits that were transferred to the Department of Education by DeFoor. He was defeated by DeFoor in the general election.

Democratic National Committee (2025)

On February 1, 2025, Kenyatta was elected as a vice chair of the

, alongside gun control activist

, voting rights advocate Reyna Walters-Morgan, and Nevada Democratic leader Artie Blanco. In June 2025, he along with Vice Chair David Hogg were removed from their positions pending a new election.

Personal life

Kenyatta and his husband Matt live in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

. The documentaries "Going Forward" (2018) and "Kenyatta: Do Not Wait Your Turn" (2023) were directed by Timothy Harris and are about him.

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. On August 20, 2024, Kenyatta spoke at the

Electoral history

References

External links

Malcolm Kenyatta for Auditor General
campaign website * , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Kenyatta, Malcolm 1990 births 2020 United States presidential electors 21st-century American LGBTQ people African-American state legislators in Pennsylvania American gay politicians African-American LGBTQ people LGBTQ state legislators in Pennsylvania Living people Democratic Party members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Politicians from Philadelphia Temple University alumni Drexel University alumni 21st-century African-American politicians Candidates in the 2022 United States Senate elections African-American candidates for the United States Senate Candidates in the 2024 United States elections 21st-century members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly