The Maryland Republican who set off President Trump’s Twitter tirade against the late Rep. Elijah Cummings over conditions in his Baltimore district is now vying for the Democrat’s seat in Congress.
“I’ve seen firsthand what a lot of people are going through,” GOP activist Kimberly Klacik told the Baltimore Sun. “Our violent crime is up 52 percent in Baltimore County and it’s rising in Baltimore City, too. I don’t think it’s a coincidence.”
Klacik, 37, posted a series of videos to Twitter in July showing vermin, trash, and abandoned homes in Baltimore.
Trump retweeted them over three days — adding pointed digs at Cummings, a sharp Trump critic.
“Elijah Cummings has failed badly!” he wrote July 28.
“Baltimore, under the leadership of Elijah Cummings, has the worst Crime Statistics in the Nation. 25 years of all talk, no action!” Trump added the next day.
And on Aug. 2, he goaded Cummings after a break-in at the congressman’s own home.
“Really bad news! The Baltimore house of Elijah Cummings was robbed,” Trump wrote. “Too bad!”
But the president took a more respectful tone in a post mourning Cummings’s Oct. 17 death of cancer.
“I got to see first hand the strength, passion and wisdom of this highly respected political leader,” he wrote.
Klacik, who is African-American, joins a crowded field of at least four Republicans and 11 Democrats who have already announced plans to run in an April special election for Cummings’ seat. Still more Dems, including Cummings’ widow Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, are said to be eyeing the race.
The majority African-American 7th congressional district, which covers about half of the city of Baltimore and parts of Baltimore and Howard Counties, has never been in GOP hands.
But Trump is making a concerted play for black voters, courting them Friday with the launch of the “Black Voices for Trump” coalition in Marietta, Georgia.
