Carolyn Jean Cheeks Kilpatrick (June 25, 1945 – October 7, 2025) was an American politician who was a U.S. representative from 1997 to 2011, first for Michigan's 15th congressional district and then for Michigan's 13th congressional district. She was a member of the Democratic Party. In August 2010 she lost the Democratic primary election to Hansen Clarke, who replaced her in January 2011 after winning the 2010 general election. Kilpatrick was also the mother of former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

Born Carolyn Jean Cheeks in Detroit on June 25, 1945, she graduated from Detroit High School of Commerce. She then attended Ferris State University in Big Rapids from 1968 to 1970 and earned a B.S. from Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo) in 1972. She earned a M.S. from the University of Michigan in 1977. She worked as a high school teacher and was later a member of the Michigan House of Representatives from 1979 to 1996. While serving in the Michigan House, she became the first African-American woman to serve on the Michigan House Appropriations Committee.

She was one of the 31 House Democrats who voted not to count the 20 electoral votes from Ohio in the 2004 presidential election. Republican President George Bush won the state by 118,457 votes.

The Congressional Black Caucus unanimously chose Kilpatrick as its chairwoman for the 110th Congress (2007-09).

On September 29, 2008, she voted against the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. [1]

In 1996, Kilpatrick challenged three-term incumbent Barbara-Rose Collins in the 1996 Democratic primary for what was then the 15th District. She defeated Collins by a shocking margin, taking 51.6 percent of the vote to Collins' 30.6 percent. This was tantamount to election in this heavily Democratic, black-majority district. She was reelected six times, never dropping below 80 percent of the vote. Her district was renumbered as the 13th District after the 2000 Census. She faced no major-party opposition in 2004 and was completely unopposed in 2006.

Her first serious opposition came during the 2008 primary—the real contest in this district—when she was challenged by both former State Representative Mary D. Waters and State Senator Martha Scott in the Democratic primary. Kilpatrick's campaign was plagued by the controversy surrounding her son and his involvement in a text messaging sex scandal. On the August 5 primary election, Kilpatrick won with 39.1 percent of the vote, compared to Waters' 36 percent and Scott's 24 percent.

In 2010, she was again challenged in the Democratic primary. Unlike in 2008, her opposition coalesced around State Senator Hansen Clarke, who defeated her in the August 3 primary. “This is the final curtain: the ending of the Kilpatrick dynasty,” said Detroit political consultant Eric Foster of Foster, McCollum, White and Assoc. NPR and CBS News both noted that throughout her re-election campaign, she was dogged by questions about her son, Kwame Kilpatrick, who is in prison on numerous corruption charges. Michigan Live reported that her election defeat could in part be attributed to the Kwame Kilpatrick scandals.