Former Michigan Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, who previously chaired the Congressional Black Caucus, has died at the age of 80.
A political force in her native Detroit, Kilpatrick served in the House for 14 years until she lost the Democratic primary in 2010 to Hansen Clarke, who succeeded Kilpatrick in the 13th District seat.
Kilpatrick spent much of her House tenure on the Appropriations Committee, where she was known for her ability to steer millions of dollars to her district, the poorest in the state.
She led the Congressional Black Caucus in 2007 and 2008, at a time when the caucus played a pivotal role in House passage of a host of bills, including funding for victims of Hurricane Katrina, a major farm bill and a minimum wage increase. The group vigorously backed an expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, which President George W. Bush vetoed twice.
During her career on Capitol Hill, Kilpatrick typically broke from the liberal ranks on the issue of automobile fuel economy standards, which have long been anathema to the Big Three automakers. But in late 2008, she said the industry’s resistance to such standards and clean-air vehicles had been “big mistakes.”
With the nation teetering on the edge of an economic crisis, she was one of 33 Democrats who switched their votes to support the 2008 financial industry rescue package, after opposing an initial $700 billion version. Kilpatrick argued that the bill didn’t do enough to protect homeowners. But with the crisis deepening, Kilpatrick said at the time that if Congress did not act “we possibly face an economic Armageddon the likes of which we have not seen since the Great Depression.”
The Wall Street meltdown, along with plummeting sales and scarce credit, left the Detroit-based automobile industry facing a potential collapse. Kilpatrick supported a proposed rescue package for General Motors Corp., Chrysler LLC, and Ford Motor Co. in late 2008, saying, “We’ve got to save the auto industry. . . . We’ve got to make sure that we save those jobs.”
Kilpatrick was a school teacher before pursuing public office and taught business and vocational classes in the public schools for eight years.
“Congresswoman Kilpatrick’s journey from the classrooms of Detroit to the halls of Congress embodied a lifelong commitment to service, education, and equity,” the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation said in a statement on Wednesday.
She won the first of nine terms in the state House, a full-time job, in 1978. In Lansing, she was the first Black woman to serve on the Appropriations Committee, and she once led a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers seeking to block a proposal by popular Republican Gov. John Engler to halt state funding for local transportation programs.
Kilpatrick also hit a few bumps in her political career. She lost a bid in 1991 for the Detroit City Council when questions arose about whether she was sufficiently independent from Mayor Coleman Young; and she failed, after changing her mind several times, to win a spot on the 1994 state Senate ballot.
In 1996, when Democratic U.S. Rep. Barbara-Rose Collins became the subject of investigations by the House ethics committee and the Justice Department into allegations of ethical misconduct, Kilpatrick stepped forward to challenge her one-time political ally. She won a majority of the primary vote and beat Collins by 20 percentage points. The November outcome was a forgone conclusion in the heavily Democratic district.
Kilpatrick was often more influential at home than in Washington. In 2005, she helped revive the career of her son, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, when he was down by double digits in the polls in his reelection bid. She was criticized in the local press for missing House votes while giving rousing speeches for her son in Detroit. Kwame Kilpatrick resigned as mayor in 2008 amid legal troubles and was later convicted on several federal charges including bribery, extortion and racketeering.
He survives her, as does a daughter, Ayanna.
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