Maya Rockeymoore Cummings says she will run for the seat in Congress that belonged to her late husband, Rep. Elijah Cummings, who died last month at age 68.
Rockeymoore Cummings posted a link to her campaign website on Twitter late Monday night.
Rockeymoore Cummings ran for governor of Maryland in 2017, but then dropped out the following year. She was elected chair of the Maryland Democratic Party last year and resigned from that role Monday night.
She says she believes she has the ability to take the reigns after fighting alongside her late husband.
"He wanted me to continue this fight, and I'm going to continue this fight, and run the race, and, prayerfully, win," Rockeymoore Cummings told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow.
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The seat represents Maryland's 7th congressional district, which includes parts of Baltimore County and suburban and rural areas of Howard County.
Primaries will be in February, with an April general election.
There's been a lot of interest in the 7th District seat. As of Saturday, 11 people had filed to run in the special election, including three Republicans and eight Democrats.
Rockeymoore Cummings is also joining in as a Democrat.
The filing deadline is Nov. 20.
Elijah Cummings died Oct. 17 due to complications from longstanding health challenges, his congressional office said. He hadn't returned to work after having a medical procedure that he'd said would only keep him away for about a week.
[NATL-DC]Photos: Elijah Cummings Through the Years
"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," Rockeymoore Cummings said in a statement. "I loved him deeply and will miss him dearly."
In addition to his wife, he is survived by their three children.
