Born: 25 June 1945, United States
Died: NA
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Carolyn Jean Cheeks
The following is republished from the U.S. Congress. This piece falls under under public domain, as copyright does not apply to “any work of the U.S. Government” where “a work prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S. Government as part of that person’s official duties” (See, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101, 105).
A 30-year veteran of state politics, Carolyn C. Kilpatrick became the second Black woman to serve in the House from Michigan following her election in 1996. In only her second term, Kilpatrick was assigned to the prestigious Appropriations Committee, where she worked to direct federal resources towards her Detroit district. Her initial career as a schoolteacher inspired her to pursue public office. “For many of my students, the school lunch is the only meal they will eat in a day. That is what made me really want to fight,” she declared on the campaign trail in 1996. An active member of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), Kilpatrick was unanimously elected its chair for the 110th Congress (2007–2009).
Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick was born Carolyn Jean Cheeks on June 25, 1945, in Detroit, Michigan, to Marvell Jr., an autoworker and handyman, and Willa Mae Cheeks, a beautician. In 1963, she graduated from the High School of Commerce in Detroit as president of her class and attended Ferris State University in Big Rapids. She earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Western Michigan University in 1972 and a master’s degree in education from the University of Michigan in 1977. In 1968, she married Bernard Kilpatrick, who would later win election as a Wayne County commissioner. They raised two children, Ayanna and Kwame, and divorced in 1981. Kwame Kilpatrick served as mayor of Detroit from 2002 to 2008.
In 1967, Kilpatrick joined the Shrine of the Black Madonna of the Pan African Orthodox Christian Church, a politically active congregation in Detroit that helped elect Detroit’s first Black mayor, Coleman A. Young, in 1973. Kilpatrick worked as a Detroit public school teacher for several years, until members of her church encouraged her to run for a vacant seat in the Michigan state house of representatives. In 1978, she won election to the first of nine consecutive terms in the Michigan house. Kilpatrick became the first African-American woman to sit on the appropriations committee in the state house, chairing both the corrections budget and the transportation budget subcommittees during 14 years on the committee. Kilpatrick was also a house Democratic whip, a role in which she worked to build consensus on legislation.
In 1996, Kilpatrick challenged three-term incumbent Representative Barbara-Rose Collins for a Detroit-area seat in the U.S. House. Collins had faced scrutiny for her high rate of absenteeism and was also under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for alleged campaign finance violations. The primary challenge ended a longtime alliance between the two politicians, both of whom were members of the Shrine of the Black Madonna church. “The bottom line is she has not represented the district,” Kilpatrick said. In her campaign, Kilpatrick pledged to work with business leaders in the community to reduce unemployment and direct resources to Detroit’s underserved neighborhoods. In the August primary, Kilpatrick bested Collins by 20 points. In the general election, the overwhelmingly Democratic district elected Kilpatrick with 88 percent of the vote. In her six re-elections, she won by similarly large margins.
When Kilpatrick took her seat in the 105th Congress (1997–1999), she received assignments to three committees: Banking and Financial Services; House Oversight; and the Joint Committee on the Library of Congress. In the 106th Congress (1999–2001), Kilpatrick was required to relinquish these assignments when she obtained a seat on the House Appropriations Committee, where she served for the rest of her career. During this time she was the sole Michigan Democrat to serve on the committee, and when Republican Joseph Knollenberg failed to win re-election in 2010, she was the only Michigan lawmaker on the panel.
From her seat on the Appropriations Committee, Kilpatrick worked to bring federally-funded projects to Michigan. From 2008 through 2010, she successfully requested more than $70 million in earmarks for her district, including $1.5 million for the purchase of alternative-fuel buses and $500,000 for Detroit’s summer youth services program. She garnered funding for pre-college engineering instruction, children’s television programming, and enhanced rehabilitation services at the Detroit Medical Center. Kilpatrick supported the development of a southeast Michigan commuter rail system connecting downtown Detroit to Ann Arbor, and the 2005 transportation appropriations bill allocated $5 million towards the project’s development. Kilpatrick’s efforts brought additional funding for many programs at Wayne State University in Detroit, including NASA’s Science, Engineering, Mathematics and Aerospace Academy for secondary school students, a prisoner rehabilitation program, and a business clinic for the university’s law school.
Kilpatrick’s district included a significant portion of Detroit, and she allied herself with the city’s auto industry. She spoke out against attempts to mandate increased fuel economy requirements by adjusting the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, which automakers opposed, even though many of her Democratic colleagues backed the measure. In 2001, Kilpatrick voted against a floor amendment to raise vehicle fuel economy standards because she believed that it would force automakers to close production plants. “Don’t mess with Michigan; don’t mess with auto-making centers such as Detroit, and don’t mess with auto workers and their families,” she wrote. During the 2008 financial crisis, she backed legislation to provide General Motors and Chrysler with federal aid.
On the Appropriations Committee, Kilpatrick used her seat on the Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs to bring attention to health and economic concerns in sub-Saharan Africa. Kilpatrick favored funding to support AIDS research and prevention programs on the continent, and to provide military assistance for peacekeeping missions. In the 106th Congress, she offered an amendment to boost disaster-assistance funding for flood relief in Mozambique by $60 million; two subsequent appropriations bills included $25 million and $135 million in international disaster assistance for Mozambique and the surrounding region.
As chair of the CBC in the 110th Congress, Kilpatrick continued the organization’s focus on foreign affairs and pushed for monetary aid for the impoverished nation of Haiti. She hoped to fund domestic programs on education, health care, and disaster relief by pulling troops out of costly military conflicts in the Middle East. “Will there be money? No, not if we don’t come out of Iraq and Afghanistan, and that has to be No. 1,” she insisted. Under Kilpatrick’s leadership, the CBC was a significant force in the Democratic Party’s push to raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour. Kilpatrick also sought to encourage American businesses and the federal government to invest more money into minority- and women-owned media outlets and advertising agencies.
In 2010, Kilpatrick voted for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, believing that it was a first step towards universal coverage. “I am a strong supporter of the single payer health care plan,” she wrote. Kilpatrick repeatedly proposed legislation to provide up to $1,000 per month in tax credits for medical doctors who practice in underserved areas.
In 2008, Kilpatrick faced her first serious electoral challenge. In the months leading up to the August primary, her son, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, faced eight felony charges for misconduct in office. Mary Waters and Martha Scott, both members of the Michigan house of representatives, ran against her, citing the need for new leadership in the district. Despite the close contest, Kilpatrick received a 39-percent plurality and secured the nomination before winning re-election in November. In the 2010 Democratic primary, voters consolidated their support behind Detroit native and Michigan state senator Hansen Clarke. Kilpatrick touted her status as the only Michigan member of the Appropriations Committee and worked to distance herself from her son and his legal issues. Clarke’s grassroots campaign, meanwhile, mustered support in Detroit and attracted enough support in the surrounding suburbs to defeat Kilpatrick in the primary with 47 percent of the vote; Kilpatrick took 41 percent.