Philly’s largest city worker union is backing Malcolm Kenyatta for U.S. Senate

State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta has secured a hometown endorsement in his bid for the U.S. Senate.

District Council 33, the city’s largest municipal union, whose members include sanitation workers, correctional officers, and crossing guards, endorsed Kenyatta on Thursday at its West Philadelphia headquarters. The union represents 15 locals and has about 10,000 members.

Yvonne Sutton, political director for DC33, said Kenyatta got the nod because of his personal and political understanding of ordinary people. “He absolutely understands the plight of working families and how hard it is for them and how important it is for unions to exist,” she said.

The endorsement comes a week after another Democratic Senate candidate, U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb, received the backing of the Philadelphia Building & Construction Trades Council, a group of 30 labor unions in the city and surrounding suburbs.

Lamb, who represents a suburban district outside of Pittsburgh, has been courting Philadelphia Democratic leaders in recent months.

The Democratic primary is May 17. Five Democrats and at least six Republicans are seeking to replace the incumbent Republican senator, Pat Toomey of Lehigh County, who isn’t seeking reelection.

Sutton said the only Senate candidates to seek interviews with her union were Kenyatta, who appeared in person, and Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, who spoke with the union over Zoom. She said the endorsement, which comes two years into new leadership under president Ernest Garrett, signals a departure from “business as usual.”

“I’ve been around in DC33 for over 30 years and I have watched our union endorse incumbents because they were incumbents, endorse people who have not always voted in our best interests but we just voted for them because other unions went with them,” Sutton said.

“We’re doing things differently now and frankly, it’s nice to support a candidate that wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth.”

At an event Thursday morning, Kenyatta, who represents a section of North Philadelphia, said the endorsement helps him with those who doubt his campaign, which has severely trailed his opponents in fund-raising.

“We need a U.S. senator that’s not just asking for your vote but understands your life,” he said at the event. “And not because they did a roundtable about it. Not because they came and did a walking tour of your neighborhood once.”

“This is our time as working people and when people say it can’t be done, I will say very simply just watch me.”

Endorsements are just one small signal of support in a primary, and a union’s backing doesn’t always indicate how its members will vote. But union endorsements also mean volunteers and resources and can signal a candidate’s working-class appeal. For candidates running statewide, it’s also an opportunity to plant a geographic flag of support.

It is not surprising Philadelphia’s unions aren’t moving as one political bloc in the primary, said Larry Ceisler, a Democratic political analyst.

“Labor is probably less unified than they’ve been in the past and that’s because they probably have more influence in Democratic Party politics,” he said. “The more influence you have, unfortunately the more splintered you tend to be. But they’ll still all come together in the fall.”