Kwesi Mfume to seek congressional seat vacated by death of Elijah Cummings
Source: Washington Post
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.
“Today, we are here without Elijah,” Mfume said Monday, announcing his candidacy before a crowd of supporters at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum in downtown Baltimore. “I honestly believe that I’ve got to find a way to make sure what he and so many others fought for is not lost, tossed to the side or forgotten ... If I were not ready to go to work on Day 1, I would not be here.”
Mfume was elected to Baltimore City Council at age 31, winning by three votes. He led the council’s committee on health policy and worked to diversity city government and divest city funds from apartheid government of South Africa. He won the seat of retiring congressman Parren Mitchell in 1986, and served for about a decade, including a stint as chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/kwesi-mfume-to-seek-congressional-seat-he-elijah-cummings-once-held/2019/11/04/63275baa-ff0c-11e9-8501-2a7123a38c58_story.html
There is an interesting list of people who have thrown their hat into this ring and Cummings' widow is also considering it.
= new reply since forum marked as read
so she is definitely political! WaPo had an article about her interest last week -
By Ovetta Wiggins
Oct. 31, 2019 at 7:15 p.m. EDT
Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, the widow of Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, said Thursday that she is “thinking carefully” about whether she should run for the 7th District seat her husband held for more than two decades. It is the first public comment Rockeymoore Cummings has made about her intentions since Cummings (D-Md.) died Oct. 17.
“I love Baltimore City, the counties of the 7th Congressional District, and the state of Maryland,” Rockeymoore Cummings said in a text. “I’m deeply committed to public service and I’m honored by the widespread encouragement I’ve received to continue Elijah’s amazing legacy. As I mourn the loss of my husband, I’m thinking carefully about the future and will make an announcement very soon.”
A special election to select a successor to the congressman will be held in April. Rockeymoore Cummings is the chairwoman of the Maryland Democratic Party, serving in that role for nearly a year. In October 2017, she launched a bid for governor before dropping out of the race less than three months later. She cited “personal considerations.” At the time she ended her campaign, Elijah Cummings was being treated at Johns Hopkins Hospital for a bacterial infection in his knee.
Rockeymoore Cummings, a policy consultant, holds a doctorate in political science from Purdue University and has more than two decades of experience working in the public and private sectors, including as chief of staff to then-Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.), senior resident scholar for health and income security at the National Urban League, and vice president of research and programs at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. She started Global Policy Solutions, a social-change strategy firm, in 2005.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/maya-rockeymoore-cummings-is-thinking-carefully-about-running-for-her-late-husbands-congressional-seat/2019/10/31/8c4425e2-fc26-11e9-8906-ab6b60de9124_story.html
I sure hope she runs and wins. Elijah will be smiling.
there would be another woman in Congress too! 
So much color in every way. From their clothes to their hair and their skin. Beautiful colorful people.
this one tears me up
Two Native American women break ground in election to U.S. Congress | The Japan Times
Democrats Sharice Davids and Deb Haaland broke new ground Tuesday, becoming the first Native American women elected to Congress, U.S.
and so heart-warming! 
Our future is giving voice to ones that never had one.
Sharice and Deb, That picture is for the ages~ 