Elijah Cummings | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Official portrait, 2008 | |
| Chair of theHouse Oversight Committee | |
| In office January 3, 2019 – October 17, 2019 | |
| Preceded by | Trey Gowdy |
| Succeeded by | Carolyn Maloney |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromMaryland's7th district | |
| In office April 16, 1996 – October 17, 2019 | |
| Preceded by | Kweisi Mfume |
| Succeeded by | Kweisi Mfume |
| Member of theMaryland House of Delegates from the39th district | |
| In office January 12, 1983 – January 10, 1996 | |
| Preceded by | Lena King Lee |
| Succeeded by | Sterling Page |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Elijah Eugene Cummings (1951-01-18)January 18, 1951 |
| Died | October 17, 2019(2019-10-17) (aged 68) |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 3 |
| Education | Howard University (BA) University of Maryland, Baltimore (JD) |
| Signature |  |
Elijah Eugene Cummings (January 18, 1951 – October 17, 2019) was an American politician and lawyer who served in theUnited States House of Representatives forMaryland's 7th congressional district from 1996 until his death in 2019, when he was succeeded by his predecessorKweisi Mfume.[1] The district he represented included over half of thecity of Baltimore, including most of the majority-black precincts ofBaltimore County, and most ofHoward County, Maryland. A member of theDemocratic Party, Cummings previously served in theMaryland House of Delegates from 1983 to 1996.
Cummings served as the chair of theCommittee on Oversight and Reform from January 2019 until his death in October of the same year.
Cummings was born on January 18, 1951, in Baltimore, son of Ruth Elma (née Cochran) and Robert Cummings.[2] His parents weresharecroppers.[3] He was the third child of seven. When he was 11 years old, Cummings and some friends worked to integrate a segregated swimming pool in South Baltimore.[4]
Cummings graduated with honors fromBaltimore City College high school in 1969.[5][6] He then attendedHoward University inWashington, D.C.,[6] where he served in thestudent government as sophomore class president, student government treasurer, and later student government president. He became a member of thePhi Beta Kappa society[7] and graduated in 1973 with abachelor's degree inpolitical science.[6][8]
Cummings graduated fromlaw school at theUniversity of Maryland School of Law, receiving hisJuris Doctor in 1976, and was admitted to the bar in Maryland later that year.[9] He practiced law for 19 years before first being elected to the United States House of Representatives in the1996 election.[10]
For 14 years, Cummings served in theMaryland House of Delegates. His predecessor,Lena King Lee, raised funds and campaigned for him; years later, Cummings credited her with launching his political career.[11][12] In theMaryland General Assembly, he served as Chairman of theLegislative Black Caucus of Maryland and was the first African American in Maryland history to be namedSpeaker Pro Tempore.[13]
Cummings also served on several boards and commissions, both in and out of Baltimore. Those include SEED Schools of Maryland Board of Directors and the University of Maryland Law School Board of Advisors.[14] He served on numerous Maryland boards and commissions including the Board of Visitors to theUnited States Naval Academy and the Elijah Cummings Youth Program inIsrael. He was an honorary member of theBaltimore Zoo Board of Trustees.[15]
In addition to his speaking engagements, he wrote a biweekly column for theBaltimore Afro-American newspaper.[16]
Elijah Cummings was a member ofPhi Beta Sigma and aPrince Hall Mason.[17][18]
In December 2010,Edolphus Towns announced that he would not seek the position ofranking minority member of the Oversight Committee in the next Congress, even though hisseniority and service as chair would typically result in his filling this post. Reportedly, Towns withdrew because of a lack of support fromNancy Pelosi who feared that he would not be a sufficiently aggressive leader of Democrats in an anticipated struggle with incoming committee chair RepublicanDarrell Issa.[19] Reportedly, the White House also wanted Towns to be replaced.[20] Cummings defeatedCarolyn Maloney in a vote of the House Democratic Caucus.[19]
In his role as chair of the Oversight Committee, Cummings presided over the first public testimony by President Trump's former lawyer,Michael Cohen,[21][22][23] and was a leading figure in theimpeachment inquiry against Donald Trump.[24]Carolyn Maloney was named acting chair bySpeakerNancy Pelosi, and won the subsequent election in theDemocratic caucus to serve as permanent chair.[25][26]
Cummings was a member of theCongressional Progressive Caucus.[29] He served as chairman of theCongressional Black Caucus[30] during the108th United States Congress.
Cummings received praise following the congressional panel hearings onsteroids in 2008. While investigating the use ofsteroids in sports, the panel called numerousbaseball players to testify, including former single season home run record holderMark McGwire. After McGwire answered many questions in a vague fashion, Cummings demanded to know if he was "taking the Fifth", referring to theFifth Amendment. McGwire responded by saying, "I am here to talk about the future, not about the past." The exchange came to epitomize the entire inquiry.[31]
Cummings introduced thePresidential and Federal Records Act Amendments of 2014, a bipartisan bill signed into law by then-PresidentBarack Obama in December 2014. The bill, which Cummings co-sponsored with RepresentativeDarrell Issa, (R-California), is a set of amendments to theFederal Records Act andPresidential Records Act. Among other provisions, the bill modernizes the definition of a federal record to expressly include electronic documents.[32][33]
He supported theSmart Savings Act, a bill that would make the default investment in theThrift Savings Plan (TSP) an age-appropriatetarget date asset allocation investment fund (L Fund) instead of the Government Securities Investment Fund (G Fund).[34] Cummings called the bill a "commonsense change" and argued that the bill "will enable workers to take full advantage of adiversified fund designed to yield higher returns".[35]
He introduced theAll Circuit Review Extension Act, a bill that would extend for three years the authority for federal employees who appeal a judgment of theMerit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) to file their appeal at any U.S. circuit court of appeals, instead of only theU.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit.[36] Cummings said that this program is important to extend because it "allowswhistleblowers to file appeals where they live rather than being limited to the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals".[37] He also said that the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals has "an abysmal track record in whistleblower cases".[37]
In remarks at the2016 Democratic National Convention, Cummings declared: "Our party does not just believe, but understands, thatBlack Lives Matter. But we also recognize that our community and our law enforcement work best when they work together."[38][39]
Rep. Cummings was shown to be very passionate and dedicated in his beliefs, and could often be seen becoming emotional in public as a result.[40] Cummings was seemingly very agreeable as well. According to many, Cummings would often befriend members of theRepublican Party, and was highly respected by both sides of the aisle.[41]
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The five-term Congressman for Maryland's 7th congressional district,Kweisi Mfume, resigned in February 1996 to take the presidency of theNAACP. Cummings won a crowded twenty-seven-way Democratic primary—the real contest in this heavily Democratic, black-majority district—with 37.5% of the vote.[42] In the special election, he defeatedRepublican Kenneth Kondner with over 80 percent of the vote. He defeated Kondner again in November by a similar margin to win the seat in his own right.[43][failed verification]
He was reelected 11 more times in the contests which followed, never dropping below 69 percent of the vote. He ran unopposed in 2006.[43][failed verification]
Early in 2007, Cummings began campaigning forBarack Obama's presidential bid, attempting to solidify Obama's support in the African American community.[citation needed] Early in 2008, Obama remained relatively unknown and Congressional Black Caucus support was split withHillary Clinton.[44] Cummings traveled extensively to campaign for Obama.[citation needed]
Maryland's 7th congressional district: Results 1996–2018[45][46]
| Year | Type | Winner | Party | Votes | % | Opponent | Party | Votes | % | Opponent | Party | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Special |  Y Elijah Cummings | Democratic | 18,870 | 80.9% | Kenneth Kondner | Republican | 4,449 | 19.1% | ||||
| 1996 | General | Y Elijah Cummings | 115,764 | 83.5% | 22,929 | 16.5% | |||||||
| 1998 | Y Elijah Cummings | 112,699 | 85.7% | 18,742 | 14.3% | ||||||||
| 2000 | Y Elijah Cummings | 134,066 | 87.0% | 19,773 | 12.8% | ||||||||
| 2002 | Y Elijah Cummings | 137,047 | 73.5% | Joseph E. Ward | 49,172 | 26.4% | |||||||
| 2004 | Y Elijah Cummings | 179,189 | 73.4% | Tony Salazar | 60,102 | 24.6% | Virginia Rodino | Green | 4,727 | 1.9% | |||
| 2006 | Y Elijah Cummings | 158,830 | 98.1% | Write-in candidates | 3,147 | 1.9% | |||||||
| 2008 | Y Elijah Cummings | 227,379 | 79.5% | Michael Hargadon | Republican | 53,147 | 18.6% | Ronald Owens-Bey | Libertarian | 5,214 | 1.8% | ||
| 2010 | Y Elijah Cummings | 152,669 | 75.2% | Frank Mirabile | 46,375 | 22.8% | Scott Spencer | Libertarian | 3,814 | 1.9% | |||
| 2012 | Y Elijah Cummings | 247,770 | 76.5% | 67,405 | 20.8% | Ronald Owens-Bey | Libertarian | 8,211 | 2.5% | ||||
| 2014 | Y Elijah Cummings | 144,639 | 69.9% | Corrogan Vaughn | 55,860 | 27.0% | Scott Soffen | Libertarian | 6,103 | 3.0% | |||
| 2016 | Y Elijah Cummings | 238,838 | 74.9% | 69,556 | 21.8% | Miles B. Hoenig | Green | 9,715 | 3.0% | ||||
| 2018 | Y Elijah Cummings | 202,345 | 76.4% | Richmond Davis | 56,266 | 21.3% | David Griggs | Libertarian | 5,827 | 2.2% | |||
Cummings lived in theMadison Park community in Baltimore and was an active member of the New Psalmist Baptist Church.[43][failed verification] He married Joyce Matthews, with whom he had a daughter, Jennifer J. Cummings.[47][48] He had a son and a daughter, Adia Cummings, from other relationships.[47][48] He marriedMaya Rockeymoore Cummings in 2009, who was elected chairwoman of theMaryland Democratic Party in December 2018.[49][50]
In June 2011, his nephew Christopher Cummings, son of his brother James, was murdered at his off-campus house nearOld Dominion University inNorfolk,Virginia, where he was a student.[51] On August 12, 2021, Norfolk Police charged four men with the murder.[52]
Cummings underwent surgery to repair hisaortic valve in May 2017 and was absent from Capitol Hill for two months. In July 2017, he developed a surgery-related infection but returned to work.[53] Cummings was later hospitalized for a knee infection.[54]
Cummings was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer calledthymic carcinoma in 1994 while serving as a member of theMaryland House of Delegates. It was revealed in November 2019 that Cummings had lived with the cancer for 25 years, though it was not stated as the cause of death.[55]
| External videos | |
|---|---|
 Elijah Cummings funeral service, New Psalmist Baptist Church, Baltimore, October 25, 2019,C-SPAN |
Elijah Cummings died on October 17, 2019, atJohns Hopkins Hospital at the age of 68 from "complications concerning longstanding health challenges", his spokeswoman stated.[54][56][57][58] Before his funeral service on October 25 at Baltimore's New Psalmist Baptist Church, where he was a member for 40 years, Cummings lay in state at the U.S. Capitol Building'sStatuary Hall on October 24.[59][60][56]
Cummings is the first African American lawmaker to achieve the honor oflying in state at the nation's Capitol.[59] Prior to his death, the most recent people to lie in state were former senatorJohn McCain and former presidentGeorge H. W. Bush. Following a state funeral which was attended by family and members of Congress,[61][62] thousands of public mourners were seen entering the U.S. Capitol to see his casket and received greetings from his widow, Maya Rockeymoore-Cummings.[63][61] His casket departed from the U.S. Capitol at around 8:35 p.m.[61]
On October 25, 2019, the official funeral for Cummings was held at the New Psalmist Baptist Church in Baltimore. Many political figures of the Democratic Party, including former PresidentsBarack Obama andBill Clinton, former Secretary of StateHillary Clinton, House SpeakerNancy Pelosi,Joe Biden,John Lewis,Amy Klobuchar,Elizabeth Warren,Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and his predecessorKweisi Mfume (who then became his successor) attended the funeral service.[64][65] His friend and long time pastor Bishop Walter S. Thomas, Sr. performed the eulogy.[66]
Cummings was in favor ofsingle-payer healthcare. While he supported theAffordable Care Act, he believed that the legislation should have added a public option.[67]
Cummings believed thatmarijuana should be legalized and taxed at the same rate asalcohol.[67]
Cummings was awarded many honors and awards in recognition of his political career. These include:
| Location | Date | School | Degree |
|---|---|---|---|
 District of Columbia | 2003 | Howard University | Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[70] |
 Maryland | 2006 | Morgan State University | Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[71] |
| Maryland | 2007 | Goucher College | Doctorate[72] |
| Maryland | 2014 | Maryland Institute College of Art | Doctorate[73] |
| Maryland | 2015 | Johns Hopkins University | Doctor of Humane Letters (DHL)[74] |
| Maryland | December 20, 2017 | University of Maryland, College Park | Doctor of Public Service[75] |
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Media from Commons
Quotations from Wikiquote
Texts from Wikisource
Data from Wikidata| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
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| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromMaryland's 7th congressional district 1996–2019 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chair of theCongressional Black Caucus 2003–2005 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chair of theHouse Oversight Committee 2019 | Succeeded by |
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| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
