Former congressman and NAACP President Kweisi Mfume will run for the Maryland House seat left vacant after the death of Rep. Elijah Cummings Elijah Eugene CummingsBlack GOP candidate accuses Behar of wearing black face in heated interview Overnight Health Care: US won't join global coronavirus vaccine initiative | Federal panel lays out initial priorities for COVID-19 vaccine distribution | NIH panel: 'Insufficient data' to show treatment touted by Trump works House Oversight Democrats to subpoena AbbVie in drug pricing probe MORE (D-Md.), according to ABC News.

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Mfume previously held the seat for five terms before retiring to assume the NAACP presidency, with Cummings succeeding him and serving until his death in October.

Mfume ran in the state’s Democratic primary for the Senate in 2006 but lost to Sen. Ben Cardin Benjamin (Ben) Louis CardinPelosi hopeful COVID-19 relief talks resume 'soon' Congress must finish work on popular conservation bill before time runs out PPP application window closes after coronavirus talks deadlock MORE.

“His memory and spirit to fight back and fight on is alive and well and here with us today,” Mfume said of Cummings in his announcement Tuesday.

“I need you with me. I need you with me because like you, like you, all of us believe in the American right to clean water, to clean air, to a good education for children no matter where their zip code or what their surname is… I ask all of you to join me in this fight.”

Mfume is not the first person to declare his candidacy for the heavily Democratic seat. Maryland House of Delegates Majority Whip Talmadge Branch (D) announced his candidacy last week, after Dr. Mark Gosnell had already declared.

Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, the late House Oversight and Reform Committee chairman’s widow and the chairwoman of the Maryland Democratic Party, has not yet committed to a run but said she is “thinking carefully” about the prospect.

The primary for the seat is scheduled for Feb. 4, 2020, while Gov. Larry Hogan (R) has scheduled the general special election to fill the seat for April 28, coinciding with the state’s presidential primary.