The wife of Rep. Elijah Cummings said her 68-year-old husband “worked until his last breath,” before succumbing to longtime health complications.
Cummings, who was chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, represented his Maryland’s 7th District for 23 years and lived in an inner city neighborhood affected by poverty and crime, until his death early Thursday morning.
He entered Johns Hopkins Hospital for a heart procedure in September and did not return to Congress.
His wife, Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, is chairwoman of the Maryland Democratic Party.
“Congressman Cummings was an honorable man who proudly served his district and the nation with dignity, integrity, compassion and humility,” Cummings said in a statement released Thursday. “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’s been an honor to walk by his side on this incredible journey. I loved him deeply and will miss him dearly.”
Cummings used his role on the Oversight panel to defend the Obama administration against the GOP’s aggressive oversight, and when Democrats took the majority he became chairman and launched his own investigation into the Trump administration.
Trump and Cummings clashed most recently when Trump criticized Cummings’ district for its crime rate and rodents.
Before winning a seat in Congress in 1996, Cummings served in the Maryland General Assembly for 14 years.
“Our hearts are broken over the loss of such a dynamic figure in American politics,” a Maryland Democratic Party spokesperson said. “And we ask the public and the press to allow Maryland Democratic Party Chair Dr. Maya Rockeymoore Cummings and the rest of the Cummings family time and space to grieve their loss.”
