Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick

Carolyn Jean Cheeks Kilpatrick (June 25, 1945 – October 7, 2025) was an American politician and educator who served as a United States Representative from Michigan from January 3, 1997, to January 3, 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, she represented Michigan’s 15th congressional district from 1997 until it was renumbered as the 13th congressional district following the 2000 Census, and she continued to represent the 13th district through the end of her tenure. Over seven terms in office, she participated actively in the legislative process and represented the interests of her largely urban, heavily Democratic, and majority-Black constituency. She was also the mother of former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

Born Carolyn Jean Cheeks in Detroit, Michigan, on June 25, 1945, Kilpatrick was raised and educated in the city she would later represent in Congress. She graduated from Detroit High School of Commerce and went on to pursue higher education in Michigan. From 1968 to 1970 she attended Ferris State University in Big Rapids, and she later earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo in 1972. Committed to furthering her education, she obtained a Master of Science degree from the University of Michigan in 1977. Before entering elective office, she worked as a high school teacher, grounding her early professional life in public education and community service.

Kilpatrick’s political career began in state government. She was elected to the Michigan House of Representatives in 1978 and served there from 1979 to 1996. During her long tenure in the state legislature, she built a reputation as a dedicated Democratic lawmaker and an advocate for her Detroit-area constituents. Her work in Lansing helped establish the political base and legislative experience that would support her later bid for national office. In addition to her legislative responsibilities, she was active in civic and community affairs, including service on the Detroit Substance Abuse Advisory Council. She was also a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority, reflecting her engagement in African American civic and professional networks.

In 1996, Kilpatrick sought election to the U.S. House of Representatives from what was then Michigan’s 15th congressional district. She challenged three-term Democratic incumbent Barbara-Rose Collins in the Democratic primary, the decisive contest in this heavily Democratic district. Kilpatrick won the primary by a wide margin, receiving 51.6 percent of the vote to Collins’s 30.6 percent, a result widely regarded as a significant upset. Her primary victory was tantamount to election in the general election, and she entered Congress on January 3, 1997. After the 2000 Census, her district was renumbered as the 13th congressional district, and she continued to represent that district until 2011. She was reelected six times, never dropping below 80 percent of the vote, and in 2004 she faced no major-party opposition; in 2006 she ran completely unopposed.

During her congressional service, Kilpatrick was a member of the powerful House Committee on Appropriations, where she helped shape federal spending priorities. Within Appropriations, she served on the Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies, a key panel for issues affecting urban infrastructure, housing, and transportation—matters of particular importance to her Detroit-based district. She was active in several caucuses, including the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and she participated in the Canada–United States Inter-Parliamentary Group, reflecting her engagement with both domestic and cross-border policy issues. The Congressional Black Caucus unanimously chose her as its chairwoman for the 110th Congress (2007–2009), placing her in a prominent leadership role among African American members of the House.

Kilpatrick’s voting record reflected a generally progressive orientation and a willingness at times to take dissenting positions. She was one of 31 House Democrats who, on January 6, 2005, voted not to count the 20 electoral votes from Ohio in the 2004 presidential election, a symbolic challenge to the certification of President George W. Bush’s victory in that state, which he had carried by 118,457 votes. On September 29, 2008, amid the unfolding financial crisis, she voted against the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, the initial version of the federal financial rescue legislation commonly known as the bank bailout. Her positions underscored both her alignment with progressive concerns and her responsiveness to skepticism among many constituents about the fairness of federal economic policy.

For much of her congressional career, Kilpatrick enjoyed strong electoral security, but her political standing became more contested in her later terms. Her first serious challenge came in the 2008 Democratic primary, the decisive contest in her overwhelmingly Democratic district, when she faced former State Representative Mary D. Waters and State Senator Martha Scott. The campaign was overshadowed by controversy surrounding her son, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, and his involvement in a widely publicized text-messaging sex scandal. In the August 5, 2008, primary, she prevailed with 39.1 percent of the vote, compared with 36 percent for Waters and 24 percent for Scott, a narrow victory that revealed growing vulnerability. In 2010, her opposition coalesced around State Senator Hansen Clarke, who challenged her in the August 3 Democratic primary. Throughout that campaign, national outlets such as NPR and CBS News noted that she was dogged by questions about her son, who would later be imprisoned on numerous corruption charges. Michigan Live and other observers reported that her defeat could in part be attributed to the scandals involving Kwame Kilpatrick. Clarke defeated her in the primary, and he succeeded her in Congress in January 2011. Commenting on the result, Detroit political consultant Eric Foster described it as “the final curtain: the ending of the Kilpatrick dynasty.”

After leaving Congress, Kilpatrick remained a notable figure in discussions of African American political leadership and the history of women in the United States House of Representatives, particularly as one of the African-American United States representatives from Michigan. Her family life continued to draw public attention. She had married Bernard Nathaniel Kilpatrick in 1968; the couple divorced in 1981. They had two children, daughter Ayanna and son Kwame Kilpatrick, who served as Mayor of Detroit. She was the grandmother of six grandsons, including two sets of twins, and two granddaughters. Both her former husband and her son were later tried under an 89-page federal felony indictment. On March 11, 2013, her son was found guilty on 24 of 30 federal charges, and her former spouse was found guilty on 1 of 4 federal charges.

In her later years, Kilpatrick resided in the Metro Atlanta area. She lived with her daughter in Fayetteville, Georgia, as she contended with Alzheimer’s disease. Carolyn Jean Cheeks Kilpatrick died at her daughter’s home in Fayetteville on October 7, 2025, at the age of 80, from complications of Alzheimer’s disease. Her long career in public service, from the Michigan House of Representatives to seven terms in the U.S. House, marked her as a significant figure in Michigan and national politics during a transformative period in American history.