John Malinowski

**Note:** This page is in the *work-in-progress* phase.

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**John Paul Lech Malinowski** (born May 2, 1991) is a Polish-American politician, activist and former congressional staffer currently running for the United States House of Representatives in New York's 12th Congressional District.

## Early Life

Born in Brooklyn, New York City on May 2, 1991. He was baptized as John Paul Lech after the first Polish-born Pope John Paul II and his great-grandfather, veteran of the Warsaw Uprising, Lech Franciszek Malinowski, respectively. His parents, Stefan and Maria Malinowski were born in Częstochowa in Poland (then People's Republic of Poland) immigrating to the US in late 1989. John himself has described his family as "a religious [..], yet fairly liberal middle class Polish-American family". The stories of his great-grandfather's involvement in the underground resistance movement and the Home Army (Polish: *Armia Krajowa*) during WW2 gave John the courage to try to change his community, albeit in more peaceful ways, running for various positions within student government during his education. His work in the student government earned him a scholarship at the New York University, where he earned a Master of Arts degree in International Relations.

Due to his heritage Malinowski is fluent in Polish. He has also tried learning German "to little effect".

Malinowski, a "progressive at heart", ascribes many of his views to his aforementioned parents. As a result of his upbringing he became a more "secular" or "liberal" catholic, but "a catholic nonetheless".

## Early Career

After graduating from NYU Malinowski moved to D.C. where he briefely worked at one of many McDonald's restaurants within the capital, searching for an employment better suited for someone with his education. He initially wanted to work at a non-profit focused on progressive policy, where he could put his ideas regarding foreign policy to use, but quickly noticing the lack of organizations with a political affiliation similar to his John turned his sights to other forms of public service. Unable to get a job in the State Department, he successfully applied for a paid internship at Congresswoman Nicole T. Smith's office.

In his free time John has also gotten invloved with political activism, helping organize and volunteering at the 2016 New York Pride Parade that took place alongside many similar events across the country during the 2016 Presidential campaign. This specific field of activism was partially inspired by the fact that John is gay and in a happy relationship that started during his time at the NYU.

## 2018 campaign

Malinowski has announced his campaign for the Democratic Party's nomination for New York's 12th Congressional District in June 2017, via social media, holding his first campaign event, a Reddit Ask Me Anything session less than a month later with first campaign events within his district planned for August of that same year.

### **Endorsements**

So far, Malinowski has been endorsed by a progressive grassroots organization OurAmerica who initially recruted him as a candidate.

## Miscellaneous (Primarly things unknown to the general public)

John's family originally comes from the city of Warsaw. During the Second World War his great-grandfather was active in Armia Krajowa and was wounded during the Warsaw Uprising. After managing to cross the Vistula River to the Soviet-controlled east Warsaw on one of the few rafts that made it across the river he was treated in one of Praga's hospitals before joining the communist sponsored Wojsko Polskie (the official Polish Army in the East). For the first five months of 1945 he fought alongside the Soviets before being discharged from the Army as the war in Europe concluded. Upon returning to his homecountry, John's great-grandfather decided to settle in Częstochowa, one of the country's main spiritual centers, instead of his homecity of Warsaw which was leveled to the ground during the Uprising a few months earlier.

John's great-grandfather kept a low profile during the purges of political dissenters and people who have been deemed "possibly threatening" to the newly formed Communist state. This might have saved his life, although some of his writing indicates that he had left-wing sympathies that might have shielded him from prosecution in the first place.

John's parents were already married when they decided to move to the US shortly after the fall of the Polish People's Republic. Childless at that point they had nothing stopping them from selling their house and belongings and fulfilling their goal. They settled down in Greenpoint, Brooklyn and have lived there ever since. Due to them being immigrants they have had difficulty finding well paying jobs for a long time. John's father earned a Master's Degree in History earlier in his life and had earned experience as a history teacher in his home country, but due to his lacking language skills he had a hard time finding a job in his field of work and it took him a while to be able to learn English before finding an opening at a local high school. John's mother despite being better at English than his father worked as a cleaning lady before becoming an accountant. His parents are both legal citizens and their financial status can be described as stable middle class.