Kweisi Mfume wins the special election in Maryland's 7th congressional district
AP Photo/Julio Cortez
Democratic candidate Kweisi Mfume defeated Republican Kimberly Klacik in the special election in Maryland's 7th congressional district.
Maryland held the special election to replace the late Rep. Elijah Cummings, who died in October 2019.
The election was held almost entirely by mail, with the state mailing out an absentee ballot with prepaid postage to the nearly 484,000 registered voters in the district
The candidates:
This month, Maryland's 7th district held a special election, electing Mfume to serve out the rest of the late Rep. Elijah Cummings' term.
Cummings represented the 7th congressional district, which includes parts of the city of Baltimore and the surrounding counties, for over two decades until his death in October 2019.
Mfume, a former congressman and NAACP president, emerged as the victor from the crowded Democratic primary in February, beating out Cummings' widow and former Maryland Democratic Party Chairwoman Maya Rockeymoore Cummings.
Mfume is the rare former member of Congress to make a run for his old seat, having represented the 7th district from 1987 to 1996 before resigning from the House to lead the NAACP for eight years. After leaving the organization in 2004, he unsuccessfully ran for US Senate in Maryland in 2006.
Mfume's Republican opponent, 37-year-old Kimberly Klacik, is a nonprofit leader, a member of the Baltimore County Central Republican Committee, and vocal supporter of President Donald Trump.
The 7th district is heavily Democratic, meaning Mfume was highly favored to win this special election.
Hillary Clinton won the 7th district by over 55 percentage points in the 2016 election, carrying the district with 76% of the vote compared to 20% for Trump.
Mfume is also running in the regular election to represent the seat in the 117th congressional district in the 117th Congress (the winner of the special election will serve out the rest of Cummings' term in the 116th Congress).
Maryland held the election almost entirely by mail
Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Maryland decided to push back its presidential primary also scheduled to take place on the 28th, to June, and hold the special election in the 7th district by mail.
In order to maximize participation, Maryland mailed out an absentee ballot with prepaid postage to the nearly 484,000 registered voters in the district and set up ballot drop-boxes outside local election offices, in addition to offering very limited in-person voting options for those who did not receive ballots or voters with disabilities.
The April 28 special election will be a test of how smoothly the state can run an election almost entirely by mail ahead of the June 2 presidential and congressional primaries, which the state also plans to conduct by mail.
Ohio is also reporting results from its presidential and congressional primaries on Tuesday evening. Ohio, which was set to hold in-person voting for its presidential and congressional primaries on March 17, decided to hold its primaries by mail over the course of a month.
But unlike in Maryland, the Ohio legislature did not authorize the state's election officials to send absentee ballots or even absentee ballot request forms to registered voters.
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