“A Radical Plan That Aims to Take Us Back”

North Philadelphia state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta was one of a handful of Pennsylvania natives to earn a coveted speaking spot at the Democratic National Convention, spending two minutes on stage lambasting the conservative “Project 2025” as a “radical plan to set us back.”

Kenyatta, a 34-year-old conservative think tank, holding a copy of a 900-page bill for a second Trump term from the Heritage Foundation, said Republicans plan to reform the federal government, halt Medicare’s recently granted authority to negotiate drug prices and change overtime pay laws as part of the plan.

“My friends, these bad ideas are not new,” he said. “As long as we have fought to keep America working for working families, there have been greedy corporate interests trying to take us back.”

Democrats are looking to make Project 2025 a key campaign issue. Although some of his administration’s staff are shaping the document, former President Donald Trump recently distanced himself from the project, saying last month, “I have no idea who’s behind it.”

» READ MORE: The Agenda 2025 Project says former Pennsylvania secretary of state should be “investigated and charged” in 2020.

The brief speech was the second time Kenyatta has addressed attendees at the Democratic National Convention. He spoke in pre-recorded remarks at the 2020 convention, which was largely virtual due to COVID restrictions.

Kenyatta, the Democratic candidate for Pennsylvania auditor general and the first Black and openly LGBTQ person elected to the state legislature, has been considered a rising star in the Democratic Party for several years. He knows President Joe Biden well, heads a presidential advisory commission and has campaigned with the president across the country.

Kenyatta’s husband, Matthew Kenyatta, posted on X about watching his wife speak at the convention. “Listening in the front row on the DNC Floor and trying not to cry. SO PROUD OF MY HUSBAND!” he said.

During his speech on Tuesday, Kenyatta recalled his grandmother calling him in 2019 and saying: “I’m sorry, darling, I thought my generation had fixed it and now you’re fighting the same battles.”

“I want to tell you today what I told my grandmother. I said, ‘It’s OK, grandmother. It’s our turn,'” he said. “It’s our turn to stand up for working people and stand up for the promise of our nation. It’s our turn to defend our rights and make sure democracy doesn’t die on our watch.”

Moments after leaving the DNC stage, Kenyatta was returning from a moment of domestic focus, plotting a strategy that could facilitate his party win in his vital home state.

His biggest piece of advice for Vice President Kamala Harris? Come visit.

“A big part of it is showing up,” Kenyatta said at the convention. “I tell the vice president that every time I see her… people want to see you. She’s a dynamic person that people connect with because I think deep down people know she cares about them, and Gov. Walz exudes that as well.”