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DeRay Mckesson of #BlackLivesMatter fame files to run for mayor of Baltimore

DeRay Mckesson, one of the founding figures of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, surprised his followers by filing to run for mayor of Baltimore today.

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https://twitter.com/WesleyLowery/status/695066552488628225

Mckesson has most recently been busy in Washington, D.C., working with the White House on Campaign Zero, a list of law enforcement reforms.

https://twitter.com/rmc031/status/695065993652080640

https://twitter.com/rmc031/status/695071449284005888

Let’s find out. The Washington Post reports that Mckesson is a last-moment addition to a crowded field. “Mckesson, 30, joins a crowded field that includes former mayor Sheila Dixon, who is leading in the polls, state Sen. Catherine Pugh, and city councilmen Carl Stokes and Nick Mosby as well as 10 other Democratic candidates,” reports Wesley Lowrey.

https://twitter.com/WesleyLowery/status/695071965304987648

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“I’m running to usher Baltimore into a new era where our government is accountable to its people and aggressively innovative in how it identifies and solves problems,” Mckesson told the Washington Post. One problem which hardly needs identifying is the city’s homicide rate, which in 2015 was the highest per capita in the nation. There were more murders in Baltimore in 2015 — nearly 350 — than in New York City, despite New York’s population being more than 13 times higher.

Editor’s note: This post has been updated with additional tweets.

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