House
Oversight and Reform Committee Chair Elijah Cummings, D-Md., leads a meeting to
call for subpoenas on Capitol Hill in Washington on April 2, 2019. (AP)
Rep.
Elijah Cummings, the powerful House Democrat who represented Baltimore for
more than two decades and was a vocal critic of President Trump, died early
Thursday after battling health problems, his office said in a statement.
Cummings, who was 68, died at Gilchrist Hospice
Care, a Johns Hopkins affiliate. As chairman of the House Oversight and Reform
Committee, he was one of the most powerful Democrats in Washington, and played
a key role in the House Democrats' ongoing efforts to impeach Trump.
His office said in a brief statement that he died
"due to complications concerning longstanding health
challenges." Cummings had been in ill health the past few years,
navigating the Capitol in a motorized cart and using a walker.
"He worked until his last breath because he believed
our democracy was the highest and best expression of our collective
humanity," his wife, Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, said Thursday.
