compiled by Baltimore Watchdog staff
Former NAACP chief Kweisi Mfume Tuesday night won the Democratic primary to succeed the late Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, beating out 24 others vying for the 7th Congressional District seat.
In a speech at The forum, a banquet hall in northwest Baltimore, Mfume told hundreds of cheering supporters: “We’ve got another 10 weeks in front of us and to take this all across the district and to ask people to join on.”
Mfume, 71, who held the House seat 10 years before leaving in 1996 to head the NAACP, will face the winner of the Republican primary, Kimberly Klacik, on April 28 during a special election. The district includes parts of Baltimore City, Baltimore County and Howard County. The winner will serve out the rest of Cummings’s term.
Two of Mfume’s rivals for the seat, Cummings’ widow Maya Rockeymoore Cummings and state Sen. Jill P. Carter of Baltimore City announced plans to run in the regular primary April 28 for a full, two-year term. Rockeymoore Cummings was the Maryland Democratic Party chair before leaving to seek her husband’s seat.
Mfume claimed a landslide win and promised voters his congressional priorities would be reinstating a federal assault weapons ban and lowering the cost of prescription drugs.
Cummings staffer Harry Spikes, law professor F. Michael Higginbotham of the University of Baltimore and state Del. Terri L. Hill, were among those competing for the seat.