John,
This is going to be a long email but I'm hoping you'll read it. Because I want to address the elephant in the room: I’m not the typical candidate for U.S. Senate.
I’m traversing a path that's never been taken, to serve from a place that never envisioned including a person like me. A place that still rarely sees folks like us.
That means this ain’t easy.
I know I say this a lot, but it’s so important to have actual working people in government. I grew up a poor Black gay kid in Philly.
I don’t come from generational wealth. In fact, I lost both of my parents by the age of 27 — my mom who had to ration her insulin, my father who had to ration his epilepsy medication — and my family moved a lot to avoid eviction.
But here’s the thing: My story is not unique at all. Everywhere I go in Pennsylvania, I hear stories of good, hard-working people struggling to make ends meet.
The crushing weight of student debt. The skyrocketing cost of childcare and senior care. Postponed doctor visits and unfulfilled prescriptions.
I’m in this race because no one like me — like us — has ever had a seat at the table in the U.S. Senate.
Pennsylvania has never sent a Black person to the Senate, let alone a gay Black man who grew up poor.
Working families have bloody feet from walking over the brokenness and inaction of our government. It’s time for us to be in the room where decisions about our lives are being made.
In Harrisburg, I’ve fought tirelessly for solutions to the problems working people face every day.
From legal aid to those facing evictions to mental health care for our kids to ensuring all of us can make our voices heard in elections, I’m centering our families in this fight.
It’s up to us to send working people to the U.S. Senate.
I didn’t study poverty in school or learn about it from an internship — I lived it.
I got my first job at age 12 because I had to. I ran for state representative because no one was listening to families like ours.
And now I’m running for U.S. Senate for the same reason, because I see a Washington that is listening more closely to corporate lobbyists than working people. But I can't get there alone. So if you can chip in even $3, or whatever you can afford toward my campaign and the Working Families Party, it would mean the world to me — especially as we’re staring down an important FEC end-of-quarter filing deadline.
Contribute $3
Your donation will put us that much closer to delivering a government that works for working people.
A government that works for US.
All my best,
Malcolm
Malcolm Kenyatta
Pennsylvania State Representative for the 181st District
Candidate for U.S. Senate
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