Maryland Politics
Kwesi Mfume to seek congressional seat vacated by death of Elijah Cummings

By Jenna Portnoy
November 4, 2019 at 1:01 p.m. EST

Former NAACP chief and U.S. lawmaker Kweisi Mfume said Monday that he will run for the Maryland congressional seat that he held for a decade and was most recently held by his friend, the late congressman Elijah E. Cummings.

Considered an elder statesman in Baltimore politics, Mfume, 71, occupied the 7th district seat from 1987 to 1996, when he stepped aside to lead the NAACP. Cummings, who died Oct. 17, then ran for the seat and win.

Mfume’s up-from-the-streets story is well known in the district. He dropped out of high school and got involved with crime after his mother, who raised him, died of cancer. Inspired by her memory, he says, he returned to school, earning degrees from Morgan State University and Johns Hopkins University, and dedicated his life to civil rights and public service.

Mfume says he and Cummings met in the late 1970s, when Mfume was an activist and radio commentator. They and hit it off immeditely, despite campaigning for opposing political factions, and remained close friends until Cummings’s death.
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Jenna Portnoy covers Virginia, Maryland and D.C. politics for The Washington Post. She previously worked for the Newark Star-Ledger and the Allentown Morning Call, and has been a newspaper reporter since 2001. Follow https://twitter.com/jennaportnoy