Congressman Elijah Cummings, a Democrat from Maryland who died Thursday morning at age 68, will be remembered for the clarity of his opposition to Donald Trump’s miserable excuse for a presidency. It was Cummings who, after Trump attacked the congressman and his hometown of Baltimore in vile terms, responded with a rebuke steeped in moral terms. “Those at the highest levels of the government must stop invoking fear, using racist language and encouraging reprehensible behavior. It only creates more division among us, and severely limits our ability to work together for the common good,” Cummings declared in an Aug. 7 speech at the National Press Club. “As a country,” he said, “we finally must say that enough is enough — that we are done with the hateful rhetoric.”

Trump was not capable of hearing, let alone accepting, the invitation that Cummings offered, an invitation to be a better man and a better president. This is one of the many reasons why Trump will have to be impeached. And when he is impeached, it will be recalled that Cummings, who was chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, played a pivotal role in laying the groundwork for that accountability moment.

But Wisconsinites have another reason to remember Cummings.