Maryland U.S. Rep. Elijah E. Cummings Has Died

U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings asked people to go home just before the 10 p.m. curfew near the intersection of West North Avenue and Pennsylvania Avenue as protesters walked for Freddie Gray on April 29, 2015. Credit: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Rep. Elijah E. Cummings has died, his office said in a statement. A former lawyer, he represented Baltimore for 14 years as a state delegate and the last 23 as a member of Congress.

He passed away early Thursday at Gilchrist Hospice Care due to complications from longstanding health issues, his office said in a statement. Cummings was 68.

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"Congressman Cummings was an honorable man who proudly served his district and the nation with dignity, integrity, compassion and humility," his widow, Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, said in a statement. "He worked until his last breath because he believed our democracy was the highest and best expression of our collective humanity and that our nation’s diversity was our promise, not our problem. It has been an honor to walk by his side on this incredible journey. I loved him deeply and will miss him dearly."

Local officials react to Cummings' death

National figures remember Cummings

Cummings became the powerful chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee and was a formidable orator who passionately advocated for the poor in his black-majority district, which encompasses a large portion of Baltimore as well as sections of Baltimore and Howard counties.

Baltimore Mayor Bernard C. "Jack" Young remembered Young as a dedicated public servant.

"He was a voice of those who were oppressed, those who had no voice," Young told Bryan Nehman. "He was the voice of reason and he was a man of conviction and I just want to thank his family for sharing him with not only Baltimore, D.C.... Baltimore County and Howard County, which he represented at one time or another for his great service to us. His loss is not just a loss to us. It's a loss to the world."

Young said the obstacles Cummings faced in recent years couldn't conquer his passion.

"He worked even though he was sick. I would watch him come in with his walker and he would stand up in that booming voice of his and would bellow out whatever words that he needed to say," Young said. "He was just a tower of strength and he worked to the last day. I mean, this man gave it his best, he gave it his all and I know that here's a place in Heaven for him because he did what God assigned his hands to do. And I'm gonna miss him. I'm gonna really miss him."

One of the last public events for @RepCummings in West #Baltimore - a park dedication that had once been a vacant lot. Cummings died overnight at #JohnsHopkinsHospital at the age of 68 #HouseOversightCommittee #Cummings #ElijahCummings @wbalradio pic.twitter.com/i8XuJf8F5y — Phil Yacuboski (@WBALPhil) October 17, 2019

Gov. Larry Hogan ordered Maryland flags to fly at half-staff.

"Congressman Cummings leaves behind an incredible legacy of fighting for Baltimore City and working to improve people's lives," Hogan said in a statement. "He was a passionate and dedicated public servant whose countless contributions made our state and our country better."

In 2015, Cummings was on the streets of Baltimore, walking arm and arm with local clergy along North Avenue and grabbing a bullhorn to reach protesters. At the epicenter of 2015's unrest, near the intersection of North and Pennsylvania avenues, Cummings reflected a year later on what happened after the death of Freddie Gray.

"Every time I pass here now, I think about the disturbances that happened after Freddie Gray and the sheer sense of hopelessness that I could feel coming from the people who were gathered here day after day, night after night," Cummings said. "And it's interesting how you can have an experience and it could've happened 50 years ago, but the same feelings come up."

Cummings’ long career spanned decades in Maryland politics. He rose through the ranks of the Maryland House of Delegates before winning his congressional seat in a special election in 1996 to replace former Rep. Kweisi Mfume, who left the seat to lead the NAACP.

"I've often said on the floor of the Maryland House of Delegates that our world would be a much better world and a much better place if we would only concentrate on the things we have in common instead of concentrating on our differences," Cummings said in his first floor speech shortly after he was sworn in. "It's easy to find differences, very easy. We need to take more time to find common ground."

Cummings' first floor speech:

Cummings continued his rise in Congress. In 2016, he was the senior Democrat on the House Benghazi Committee, which he said was “nothing more than a taxpayer-funded effort to bring harm to Hillary Clinton’s campaign” for president.

Cummings was an early supporter of Barack Obama’s presidential bid in 2008.

WATCH: WBAL's C4 Speaks On The Passing Of Maryland Congressman Elijah E. Cummings

Throughout his career, Cummings used his fiery voice to highlight the struggles and needs of inner-city residents. He was a firm believer in some much-debated approaches to help the poor and addicted, such as needle exchange programs as a way to reduce the spread of AIDS.

Cummings was born on Jan. 18, 1951. In grade school, a counselor told Cummings he was too slow to learn and spoke poorly, and he would never fulfill his dream of becoming a lawyer.

“I was devastated,” Cummings told The Associated Press in 1996, shortly before he won his seat in Congress. “My whole life changed. I became very determined.”

It steeled Cummings to prove that counselor wrong. He became not only a lawyer, but one of the most powerful orators in the Maryland House of Delegates, where he entered office in 1983. He rose to become House speaker pro tem, the first black delegate to hold the position. He would begin his comments slowly, developing his theme and raising the emotional heat until it became like a sermon from the pulpit.

Cummings began his long push for civil rights at age 11, when he helped integrate a swimming pool in Baltimore. This year, during a speech to the American Bar Association in April, Cummings recalled how he and other black children organized protests with help from their recreation leader and the NAACP.

Every day for a week, when the children tried to get into the pool, they were spit upon, threatened and called names, Cummings said; he said he was cut by a bottle thrown from an angry crowd.

“The experience transformed my entire life,” he said.

While serving in the Maryland House of Delegates from 1983 to 1996, Cummings pushed for a ban on alcohol and tobacco ads on inner-city billboards in Baltimore, leading to the first such prohibition in a large U.S. city.

WATCH: Former Gov. Martin O'Malley Talks About The Passing Of Congressman Cummings

Cummings was quick to note the differences between Congress and the Maryland General Assembly, which has long been controlled by Democrats.

“After coming from the state where, basically, you had a lot of people working together, it’s clear that the lines are drawn here,” Cummings said about a month after entering office in Washington in 1996.

Cummings chaired the Congressional Black Caucus from 2003 to 2004, employing a hard-charging, explore-every-option style to put the group in the national spotlight.

He cruised to big victories in the overwhelmingly Democratic district, which had given Maryland its first black congressman in 1970 when Parren Mitchell was elected.

As chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, Cummings led multiple investigations of Trump's governmental dealings, including probes in 2019 relating to the president’s family members serving in the White House. In February, he told WBAL-TV 11 that his recent health scares had forced him to confront his mortality and said oversight hearings like the one in which members were set to hear from former Trump attorney Michael Cohen would be part of his legacy.

"I want, when people watch the hearing, to come out feeling that it was a fair hearing, that it was a respectful hearing and that it was filled with civility," Cummings said.

Trump responded to oversight actions from Cummings' committee by criticizing his district as a “rodent-infested mess” where “no human being would want to live.” The comments came weeks after Trump drew bipartisan condemnation following his calls for Democratic congresswomen of color to get out of the U.S. “right now,” and go back to their “broken and crime-infested countries.”

Cummings replied that government officials must stop making “hateful, incendiary comments” that only serve to divide and distract the nation from its real problems, including mass shootings and white supremacy. Cummings later said he didn't have time for those who would smear his city and invited the president to tour Baltimore.

"I welcome him to come visit and I would love to express to him to sit down and talk to the doctors at Johns Hopkins, University of Maryland and see the beautiful neighborhoods of our city and I'd be happy to have him," Cummings said.

On Thursday, Trump offered his "warmest condolences."

My warmest condolences to the family and many friends of Congressman Elijah Cummings. I got to see first hand the strength, passion and wisdom of this highly respected political leader. His work and voice on so many fronts will be very hard, if not impossible, to replace! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 17, 2019

"I got to see first hand the strength, passion and wisdom of this highly respected political leader," Trump tweeted. "His work and voice on so many fronts will be very hard, if not impossible, to replace!"

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ABC News Radio contributed to this report.