Phillipe M. Cunningham is a former city council member for Minneapolis Ward 4 and was the first transgender man of color to be elected to public office in the United States.

[4] His father worked as a unionized tractor mechanic/builder for more than forty years, while his mother was a dry cleaner employee; he is their only child.

After the murder of George Floyd, he joined a group of nine city council members who vowed to end the Minneapolis Police Department and create a new model for safety.

[16] The Safety for All Budget Plan also institutionalized a new national model of a first-time gun offender diversion program, as well as launched the City of Minneapolis Behavioral Crisis Intervention Teams, unarmed social workers to respond to appropriate mental health crisis calls.

[19] Cunningham was a panelist on President Barack Obama's 2020 Town Hall on Racial Justice and Policing on June 3, 2020 where he spoke about the public health approach to public safety and gave an update on Minneapolis in the immediate aftermath of George Floyd's murder by Minneapolis Police Department officers.

[23] In November 2018, Cunningham drew attention for a post on Twitter for characterizing the concerns of opponents of the "Minneapolis 2040" plan as merely seeking to protect their "bungalow neighborhoods".