BALTIMORE, MD — Former NAACP President Kweisi Mfume has won the Democratic nomination for the Congressional seat he once held, the Associated Press reported Tuesday night. Mfume wants to regain Maryland’s 7th Congressional district post — which he gave up to lead the civil rights organization and was then succeeded by the late U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings. With 284 of 313 precincts reporting, Mfume had 44.3 percent of the vote and Klacik 41.5 percent when The Associated Press called the races.

The congressman died Oct. 17, in the midst of his term as representative for District 7, which includes parts of Baltimore and Howard counties, as well as Baltimore City. His term continues until 2021.

There were 24 Democrats and eight Republicans in the packed field; the top vote-getter in each party will be on the ballot for the special general election April 28, the same day as the Maryland primary.

Conservative commentator Kimberly Klacik won the GOP nomination, WJZ said. The Fox News pundit’s social media posts prompted President Donald Trump to describe Maryland’s 7th Congressional district in tweets as a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.”

“We believe that if we put Humpty Dumpty back together again, we can have a district that is respected, that will say to Donald Trump, ‘Shut up! You don’t know who we are,'” Mfume said to a crowd of hundreds at last month’s Women for Mfume rally, Roll Call reported.

Political observers say Democrats hold a big advantage in the race.

Some of the other candidates who sought the seat included Cummings’ widow and a former Maryland Democratic Party chairwoman Maya Rockeymoore Cummings; University of Baltimore law professor F. Michael Higginbotham; Maryland House of Delegates Majority Whip Talmadge Branch; state Sen. Jill Carter; state Del. Terri Hill; state Del. Jay Jalisi; the 2018 Republican nominee for the 2nd Congressional District seat Liz Matory; and longtime Cummings staffer Harry Spikes.

Cummings was re-elected most recently during the 2018 midterms.

The longtime Baltimore congressman died Oct. 17, 2019, from “longstanding health conditions” at age 68, according to a spokesperson. The Democrat left behind a legacy of fighting for civil rights, lowering prescription drug prices, and most recently, serving as a voice on the House Oversight and Reform Committee.

The district is almost certain to choose a Democratic candidate based on its voting history and because it is heavily gerrymandered, said Todd Eberly, a political science professor at St. Mary’s College of Maryland.

“Republicans have no shot at the seat. I think we just need to acknowledge that,” Eberly said.

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Yet, with their notoriously low voter turnout, special elections are sometimes decided on a couple of hundred votes, making it a toss-up for who can garner a plurality of the district’s votes.

Whoever wins the primary will also be listed on the April 28 ballot for election to the next Congress, in which case their tenure would be extended past January 2021, when Cummings’ term would have been up.

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