Thiru Vignarajah​ To Run For Baltimore Mayor: Report

BALTIMORE, MD — Former Deputy Attorney General for Maryland Thiru Vignarajah announced he will run for mayor of Baltimore in the 2020 election. Crime and corruption have motivated him to throw his hat in the ring.

"Baltimore is in crisis. There is no plan, no vision, no sense of urgency," Vignarajah said in a statement obtained by WJZ. The city has been plagued by "low expectations and a deficit of leadership," to the point of becoming "heartbreaking and humiliating," he said.

Mayor Catherine Pugh is on an indefinite leave of absence, citing pneumonia. The city council has called for her resignation over questions about her "Healthy Holly" book deals.

Vignarajah, 42, is a partner at DLA Piper in Baltimore and has served as a Supreme Court law clerk and chief of major investigations for the Baltimore state's attorney's office.

"I'm a living embodiment of the promise of Baltimore," he said in an interview with Fox 45 on Wednesday, April 10.

Vignarajah is the product of Sri Lankan immigrants who taught at Baltimore City Public Schools. After attending public schools in Baltimore County, he went on to Yale University and Harvard Law School.

Said Vignarajah: "I want to make sure I'm not the exception."

Vignarajah ran unsuccessfully for Baltimore state's attorney in 2018; Marilyn Mosby clinched more votes than Vignarajah and Ivan Bates in the June 2018 primary and ran unopposed in the November election.

SEE ALSO: Baltimore City Council Calls On Mayor Catherine Pugh To Resign

This was his candidacy announcement in 2017: