President Trump targeted Maryland’s 7th Congressional District as among America’s worst places. But census figures show the Baltimore-based district is actually in the upper half of the nation in a key economic measure.
“Why is so much money sent to the Elijah Cummings district when it is considered the worst run and most dangerous anywhere in the United States. No human being would want to live there,” Trump tweeted Saturday morning, one of several jabs at House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings, a Maryland Democrat whose Baltimore district takes in a bit over half the city of Baltimore, plus most of suburban Howard County.
Yet out of 435 House districts, the median household income in the 7th is in the upper half nationally. At $60,929, it ranks 242, per census data.
The district is about 60% African American and about 35% white, with Asian Americans and others making up the rest.
To be sure, the district has its rough areas, including neighborhoods portrayed in HBO’s The Wire, a 2002-08 series about the narcotics scene in Baltimore seen through the eyes of law enforcers as well as the drug dealers and users. And FBI statistics for 2017 placed Baltimore’s homicide rate well above that of any other large American metropolis.
Yet to the west, Columbia, Maryland, in 2018 was named the safest city to live in America by a personal finance company. A study by Wallet Hub compared more than 180 cities across 39 key indicators of safety, including things such as assaults per capita, unemployment, and road quality.
The dichotomy in quality of life within the same congressional district is not unusual. All eight of Maryland’s House districts are gerrymandered by Democratic lawmakers in the state capital of Annapolis, meant to ensure the party keeps seven out of its eight in party hands.
The district’s representative, Cummings, meanwhile, has been a major critic of Trump. And now, as chairman of the House Oversight Committee, he’s in a position to take action. On Thursday, the panel voted along party lines to authorize subpoenas for personal emails and texts used for official business by top White House aides, including Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner.
Cummings said the committee has obtained “direct evidence” that the president’s daughter, Kushner, and other top aides were using personal accounts for official business in violation of federal law and White House policy. Republicans called the subpoenas unnecessary and said Ivanka Trump and Kushner are cooperating with the committee.
