“Kimberly Klacik is offensive and divisive,” writes Congressperson Kweisi Mfume in an email to supporters. The former head of the NAACP email included a string of her tweets including one announcing her plans to challenge Mfume again, this time in 2022, with the support of Trump donors.

Yes, politics make strange bedfellows. Those who voted against Trump, but for Biden because of the President-elects’ sponsorship of the 1994 Crime Bill will have to untwist their own political pretzel.
 
As reported in The Atlantic magazine’s The Crime-Bill Debate Shows How Short Americans’ Memories Are, Mfume declared, “I don’t care what color you are, if you are a criminal, you aren’t going to like the crime bill.” The then chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, added at the time in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, “Beyond that, if you are looking for some sense of security, for bans on weapons that are in our streets, for additional police officers and for programs for inner-city and rural young people, the crime bill helps you.” Yes, Mfume, was not calling for defunding the police.

Klacik drew Donald Trump’s attention with an ad on Twitter which showed her walking by a blighted section of Baltimore criticizing Democrats for hurting Maryland’s largest city. The result: a coveted speaking role at the Republican National Convention and a huge fundraising advantage over Mfume. She raised nearly $6.5 million from July 1 to September. 30 while Mfume raising about $184,000.

Mfume won the election with about 74% of the vote to fill the House vacancy created by the death of Elijah Cummings. Mfume held the seat before Cummings when Mfume became head of the NAACP.

While Klacik lost an April special election, she says she’s now better positioned in her second race against Mfume. Democrats have a 7-1 advantage in Maryland’s eight U.S. House seats, yet she won one of every four votes in 2020.

Klacik may be divisive, but who knows who will use Mfume’s 1994 vote to divide Democrats against the representative who not only got 100 percent ratings from the NAACP, but headed the nation’s oldest civil rights organization.

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NBC Analysis: Black Leaders Supported Clinton's Crime Bill