Malcolm Kenyatta has officially had it with the Democratic National Committee’s soap opera-level infighting—and he’s not afraid to say who’s starring in the melodrama. The openly gay Black Pennsylvania state representative and current DNC vice chair called out fellow vice chair David Hogg, accusing him of spinning a self-serving narrative as the party grapples with a redo of their February leadership vote.
“This isn’t an episode of Real Vice Chairs of the DNC,” Kenyatta said bluntly. “But if it were, let’s at least get the plot right.” The committee’s decision to potentially re-do the vice chair election was based on a procedural complaint that the vote may have violated gender-parity rules. But Kenyatta says that had nothing to do with Hogg’s recent controversy—namely, his push to fund challengers against incumbent Democrats through his organization Leaders We Deserve. That, Kenyatta argued, is where the real tension lies.
Hogg, the 25-year-old gun safety advocate, had cried foul, painting the DNC’s move as a targeted takedown of his position. But Kenyatta wasn’t having it. “He’s allowed to flood the zone with misinformation and act like a victim,” he said. “But the real victims are people losing their health care and housing—our trans siblings, our queer community, our working families. This is bigger than one person’s ego trip.”
Kenyatta isn’t new to pressure. As one of the only out queer Black men in the upper echelons of the party, he’s long carried the weight of representation with grace and grit. And he’s not here for distractions. “I didn’t get into this job to watch boys bicker,” he said. “I depended on food stamps. I depended on Medicaid. I want to focus on protecting people’s lives—not indulging in political theater.”
Still, he accepted the committee’s decision to reconsider the election—grudgingly. “They had the right to decide, and they did. I don’t agree with it, but I’m not going to act like I’m being personally attacked. That’s not leadership.”
What irks Kenyatta most is the erasure of the broader work. With LGBTQ rights under fire, including relentless assaults on trans healthcare and queer representation in schools and government, he says this inner-party squabble is a dangerous distraction. “Republicans are launching an all-out assault on our community. That should be the story—not this.”
In the LGBTQ world, Kenyatta has become a symbol of intersectional representation: a queer, Black, working-class man who rose to national politics not by privilege, but by persistence. His 2023 documentary Do Not Wait Your Turn tracked that rise, underscoring his belief in robust democratic engagement—especially for the marginalized.
And yet, as Kenyatta notes, the media fixates on Hogg’s every word. “Legacy media rushes to reprint every op-ed he pushes. Meanwhile, the story of a queer Black leader fighting for working families is buried. If you’re going to tell the story, tell all of it.”
Kenyatta’s message to the LGBTQ community is clear: don’t let the noise drown out the mission. While he supports fair primary challenges and party neutrality, he’s demanding integrity. “You can’t be the umpire and also swing the bat,” he said, in reference to Hogg’s dual roles. “We’re not here to tip the scale. We’re here to listen to voters.”
At a time when queer rights are under siege and political power is increasingly fragile, Kenyatta’s clarity cuts through. “This is about justice. It’s about health care. It’s about dignity. And I’m not going to let a political soap opera steal the spotlight from that.”