Maya Rockeymoore Cummings

Maya Michelle Rockeymoore Cummings (born January 31, 1971) is an American consultant, politician, and former chair of the Maryland Democratic Party in the United States. Before her election as party chair, she briefly ran for Governor of Maryland. She owns a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm.

Rockeymore Cummings is a candidate in the 2020 Maryland 7th congressional district special election to fill out the term of her late husband, Elijah Cummings, and in the overlapping regular 2020 election for the same congressional seat.

Rockeymore Cummings graduated from John Jay High School in San Antonio, Texas. She earned her bachelor's degree from Prairie View A&M University, and then attended Purdue University, where she studied political science. She earned a master's degree in 1996 and a Doctor of Philosophy in political science, with an emphasis in public policy, in 2000.

From 1995 to 1997, Rockeymoore Cummings was the Administrative Assistant to the Director at the Marion County Department of Health in Indiana. In September 1997, she then moved to Washington, D.C., and became a legislative fellow for the Congressional Black Caucus under former Rep. Melvin Watt. In 1998, she moved to the Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee as a professional staffer, until January 1999, at which time she began working as the Chief of Staff for former Rep. Charles Rangel.

In 2017, Rockeymoore Cummings announced she would run for governor of Maryland in the 2018 election. She received an endorsement from EMILY's List when she ran for Governor of Maryland. In January 2018, after her husband was hospitalized she dropped out of the race.

In December 2018, Rockeymoore Cummings was elected as chair of the Maryland Democratic Party, succeeding Kathleen Matthews. Under her leadership the party was overspending and its bank balance fell from $700,000 to $360,000.

On November 11, 2019, she announced on The Rachel Maddow Show that she will stand in the 2020 Maryland's 7th congressional district special election, to campaign for the seat previously held by her husband.

Rockeymoore Cummings married Elijah Cummings, a member of the United States House of Representatives who represented Maryland's 7th congressional district, in 2008. They remained married until his death in 2019. Cummings had three children from earlier relationships, and she is stepmother to his two daughters and one son.