Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, who represented parts of Baltimore, the city where he was born and raised, died early Thursday at age 68.
The Maryland Democrat died at Gilchrist Hospice Care, which is affiliated with Johns Hopkins Hospital, at about 2:30 a.m. EDT from “complications concerning longstanding health challenges,” his office confirmed in a statement.
Cummings, as chairman of the House Oversight Committee, most recently sparred with President Donald Trump as the 23-year veteran of Capitol Hill led multiple investigations into the president and his administration.
The son of a sharecropper, Cummings became a lawyer and then judge. He was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates in 1983, where he served until 1996, including a sting as speaker pro tempore from 1995 to 1996. He was elected to the House of Representatives in a 1996 special election.
His wife is Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, chairwoman of the Maryland Democratic Party.
