Representative Malcolm Kenyatta
Democratic National Committee, Vice Chair
Representative Malcolm Kenyatta is a third-generation North Philadelphia native and legislator currently serving in the Pennsylvania General Assembly. He earned a B.A. in Public Communications and a minor in Political Science
from Temple University, an M.S. in Strategic and Digital Communications from Drexel University, and completed the Harvard Kennedy School’s Executives in State and Local Government program. In 2023, he was appointed by President Joe Biden to chair the Presidential Advisory Commission on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Black Americans. Representative Kenyatta is a barrier-breaking public figure, becoming the first openly LGBTQ+ person of color and one of the youngest people elected to the Pennsylvania General Assembly in 2018. In 2022, he became the first openly LGBTQ+ person of color to seek a U.S. Senate seat in American history. In April 2024, he made history again as the first openly LGBTQ+ person ever nominated for statewide office by a major political party in Pennsylvania when he became the Democratic nominee for Auditor General. In the general election, he earned nearly 3.1 million votes, the second-highest vote total for any Democrat on the ticket that year. In February 2025 he was elected as Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee. Throughout his career, Representative Kenyatta has been a vocal proponent of protecting workers’ rights and rooting out government corruption and waste. He holds multiple legislative leadership roles, including as a member of the powerful State Government Committee with oversight of state agencies and elections, where he chairs the Subcommittee on Government Operations; Chair of the Financial Services and Banking Subcommittee in the Commerce Committee; and as a member of the Finance and Judiciary Committees. In 2020, he was chosen to give the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention alongside a group of other ‘Rising Stars, ’ and in 2024, he returned to the DNC as an individual speaker, continuing to represent the next generation of Democratic leadership. His groundbreaking political career and personal life have been the subject of two award-winning documentaries, including an Al Roker-produced feature-length film, Kenyatta: Do Not Wait Your Turn. Representative Kenyatta lives in North Philadelphia with his husband, Dr. Matthew Kenyatta, and their dog, Cleo.