Northwest Philly State Rep. Stephen Kinsey won’t seek reelection

State Rep. Stephen Kinsey will not seek reelection, after representing Germantown and parts of surrounding Northwest Philadelphia neighborhoods since 2013.

Kinsey, a Democrat, will leave the General Assembly this year at the end of his term to spend more time with his family and pursue a career in health care administration, he announced Tuesday.

Kinsey joins more than a dozen legislators who have announced they won’t seek reelection this year, putting control of the state House of Representatives back on the line. Democrats took control of the chamber last year with a one-seat majority, and all 203 House seats and about half of Senate seats are up for election in November.

Last year, Kinsey was appointed as the chair of the House Health and Human Services committee, which gave him sway over which health-related bills were considered in the General Assembly. He also previously served as the chair of the Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus.

As the Health and Human Services committee chair, Kinsey focused on improving services for people with intellectual disabilities and increasing state funding for mental health resources. He said he’ll continue advocating for those issues in the remaining months of his term.

The Germantown native said he hopes to spend more time with his three surviving daughters. His second-oldest daughter, Lanessa Kinsey, died three years ago from a rare disease.

When his youngest daughter approached him and said she hardly sees him, he said he realized he had to make a change.

“That made me think, ‘Da–, I gotta find something where I’m not driving up the turnpike for every session day,” Kinsey said. “I can be that connector right here in the community, tying [people] to supports to help them with their families.”

Before leaving Harrisburg, Kinsey, 65, said he wants to increase the state’s reimbursement rates for health services such as disability care so organizations can increase pay for their workers.

“We always hear how people working at Wawas or the box stores make more than they do providing supports or services to individuals,” Kinsey said. “That’s concerning. We have to build up that job market.”

One of his favorite legislative accomplishments was his role in making Juneteenth a state holiday, which Pennsylvania did before it became a federal holiday in 2020. He said he’s proud to have brought surviving Tuskegee Airmen to visit the state Capitol each year and to have made March 29 a commemorative day to honor the nation’s first Black military pilots from World War II. He’s also been a staunch supporter of gun reforms and improving training for police officers.

Kinsey initially only planned to serve 10 years, but said he chose to serve a sixth term before stepping away. In any future job, he wants to use his business degree to improve the health care field, he said.

Kinsey’s decision leaves the seat open for members of Philadelphia’s powerful Northwest coalition to choose a new candidate to represent their interests in Harrisburg. Several candidates have already announced their candidacy, while others are still considering whether to join the race.

Tuesday marked the first day that candidates could begin circulating nomination petitions to get on the April 23 primary ballot. The winner of the Democratic primary in Kinsey’s heavily Democratic district will be heavily favored to win the general election in November.

Andre Carroll, who previously worked on Councilmember Isaiah Thomas’s campaign, will run again to represent the 201st House District. He challenged Kinsey in the 2022 primary and lost by 15 percentage points, or about 1,500 votes.

Johnny Patterson, a Democrat who works in the health care industry in Philly, will also run to replace Kinsey, according to a campaign video posted Jan. 7.

Patterson’s campaign ad briefly shows a clip of Kinsey and Patterson together — which Kinsey said he asked Patterson to remove while he decides who to endorse. Patterson is among the candidates he is considering endorsing, he said.

Kinsey said he plans to make an endorsement in the coming weeks.