Kenyatta was born to Kelly Kenyatta and Malcolm J. Kenyatta,at Temple University Hospital in North Central Philadelphia. He has three adopted siblings. Kenyatta is the grandson of the civil rights activist Muhammad I. Kenyatta.[4]
Kenyatta earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in strategic communication from Temple University and a Master of Science in public communication from Drexel University.[5][6] During college,Kenyatta organized student protests against proposed education budget cuts by then-Governor Tom Corbett.[7][8]
During college,Kenyatta was also an avid poet and performer.[9][10] In 2008,with the help of theater professor Kimmika Williams-Witherspoon,[11] he founded the award-winning poetry collective Babel,which has twice won the College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational.[12]
Kenyatta completed a Harvard Kennedy School of Government three-week executive education program,Senior Executives in State and Local Government,as a David Bohnett Fellow in 2019.[13]
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.[14]
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,[15] the daughter of longtime city councilman David Cohen,in her 2015 bid for the Philadelphia City Council.
In April 2023,Biden appointed Kenyatta as chair of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Advancing Educational Equity,Excellence and Economic Opportunity for Black Americans.[23]
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
In December 2017,Kenyatta announced his campaign for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives[24] to replace the long-serving incumbent Curtis Thomas.[25] He won a five-way Democratic party primary election in May 2018 with 42.1% of the vote.[26] The night of the election,unidentified people set up homophobic posters of him and his ex-husband throughout the district.[27]
Kenyatta won the general election in November against Republican opponent Milton Street with 95.3% of the vote.[28] 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.[29]
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.
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.[32] He defeated Lehigh County Controller Mark Pinsley in the Democratic primary election.[33] During the primary, Kenyatta faced criticism after he was caught on camera claiming Pinsley didn't "like Black people."[34] His victory made Kenyatta the first openly gay man nominated by any major party for any statewide office in Pennsylvania.[35] 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.[36] He was defeated by DeFoor in the general election.
Democratic National Committee (2025–present)
On February 1, 2025, Kenyatta was elected as a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, alongside gun control activist David Hogg, voting rights advocate Reyna Walters Morgan, and Nevada Democratic leader Artie Blanco.[37]
Personal life
Kenyatta and his husband Matt live in Philadelphia.[38] He has multiple award-winning documentaries focused around him such as "Going Forward" in 2018 and "Kenyatta: Do Not Wait Your Turn" in 2023 both directed by Timothy Harris.[39][40]
Recognition
In 2017, Kenyatta was named as one of Philadelphia Magazine's 38 "people we love" as a "neighborhood champ."[41]
Kenyatta was the subject of an award-winning documentary, Going Forward,[42][43] which followed his 2018 victory.
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.[45]
↑ "Reporting Center: 2018 General Primary". Pennsylvania Department of State | Pennsylvania Elections. Pennsylvania Department of State. May 15, 2018. Retrieved August 18, 2018.
↑ Harris, Timothy (December 21, 2018), Going Forward (Short), Malcolm Kenyatta, Seven Knots Film & Media, retrieved December 10, 2024
↑ Harris, Timothy (March 25, 2023), Kenyatta: Do Not Wait Your Turn (Documentary), Malcolm Kenyatta, Matthew Jordan-Miller Kenyatta, John Fetterman, Seven Knots Film & Media, Xpedition, Al Roker Entertainment, retrieved December 10, 2024
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