(CNN) Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, widow of US Rep. Elijah Cummings, announced Monday that she will run in the special election for her late husband's former seat in Congress.

"We fought alongside of each other for a very long time, and now I'm looking to continue to fight. He would want me to continue to fight and so that's what I'm going to do," Rockeymoore Cummings, chairwoman of the Maryland Democratic Party, said in a video interview with The Baltimore Sun published Monday evening.

Rockeymoore Cummings told the Sun she would resign from her state party position ahead of her campaign. She is expected to kick off her campaign in Baltimore on Tuesday.

Minutes after the Sun interview published, she announced her campaign on national television to MSNBC's Rachel Maddow.

Rockeymoore Cummings' husband, Elijah Cummings, died of "complications concerning longstanding health challenges" on October 17 at age 68 . He had represented Maryland's 7th congressional district, which includes Baltimore, since 1996. He served as the chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, one of the panels involved in the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump.

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