Kimberly Klacik first gained prominence on the political scene by doing a video on Fox News revealing the horrific conditions of poverty that plagued her community. She asserted that then-Rep. Elijah Cummings had done a horrible job for his constituents and abandoned those who needed him the most in West Baltimore. Former President Donald Trump noticed the video and subsequently criticized Cummings on Twitter.

Klacik capitalized on this momentum and ran for Congress to replace Cummings after he died. She was the Republican nominee for Cummings’s seat in Maryland’s 7th Congressional District. She lost to Kweisi Mfume.