The late Rep. Elijah Cummings' daughters are backing his longtime aide Harry Spikes in a crowded primary field to succeed him - and not the longtime lawmaker's widow.

Jennifer Cummings, 37, and her sister Adia, 25, both support Spikes, who served on Cummings' staff for more than a decade and who was defeated in a prior primary for the Maryland House of Delegates.

Cummings widow, Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, 48, is also seeking the seat, as is Cummings' predecessor, former Rep. Kweisi Mfume, who was one of his oldest friends and is a former leader of the NAACP.

All three of the candidates spoke at Cummings funeral in October, as did his two daughters.

Split: Jennifer Cummings,37, (R) and her sister Adia Cummings, 25 (L), are backing their father's longtime aide Harry Spikes as his potential successor in Congress. The lawmaker's second wife, Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, is also seeking the Democratic nomination for Maryland's 7th Congressional District

Running: Maya Rockeymoore Cummings is running from Cummings' seat, but Cummings' two daughters have endorsed a former Cummings aide, Harry Spike. He married Maya Rockeymoore in 2008. She is president of the Maryland Democratic party

Harry Spikes, Elijah Cummings longtime staff member, spoke at his funeral and has won the endorsement of Cummings' two daughters

'My sister and I are supporting Harry Spikes for Congress because for the past 15 years he's worked alongside our father to meet the needs of the people of the [Maryland] 7th Congressional District,' Jennifer Cummings said in a statement.

'Harry knows this community. Our father often said of himself that he was 'an ordinary man called to an extraordinary mission,' and Harry embodies that same spirit,' she said.

Jennifer and Adia praised their father as a family man and a legislator in their funeral orations at a televised event attended by former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.

Adia asked for Cummings' staff to stand during her own oration for her father, before quoting Eminem's song, 'Lose Yourself.'

Jennifer is Cummings' daughter from his first marriage, to Joyce Matthews; they divorced in 1982. Adia is from another relationship. The lawmaker also has a son.

Maya Rockeymoore Cummings launched her own campaign from the Baltimore home she shared with Cummings. The couple had married in 2008.

Last week, she underwent a preventative double mastectomy. Her mother died of breast cancer and her sister was diagnosed with the disease.

Tributes: Elijah Cummings was eulogized at his Baltimore funeral by Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton - as well as the rivals for his seat and his daughters

She is a Washington, D.C.-based consultant who serves as chair of the Maryland Democratic Party.

Rockeymoore Cummings previously ran for governor of Maryland in the 2018 election but dropped out early in the race when her husband was hospitalized in January of that year.

Two dozen Democrats are competing in a special primary election to be held Feb. 4 in a district that President Donald Trump called 'rat-infested' amid online attacks on Cummings, who oversaw the powerful House Oversight Committee.

The district is heavily Democratic and the Maryland primary system means that the winner is almost certain to take the seat at the later special election on April 20, 2020.

Cummings, the son of sharecroppers who moved to Baltimore rose to become a powerful committee chair, died at 68.

His funeral in Baltimore saw eulogies not just from his widow and her primary rival Spikes, but from two former Democratic presidents - Bill Clinton and Barack Obama - and Hillary Clinton.

The district has huge significance for Democrats and for black voters.

As well as Cummings, whose chairmanship of the Oversight Committee made him one of the most powerful members of the House, it elected Maryland's first African-American member of Congress, Parren Mitchell, in 1971.

His successor was Mfume, who left Congress to lead the NAACP, with Cummings succeeding him.