WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Glenn Ivey has joined fellow Maryland Democrat Kweisi Mfume in deciding not to attend Republican President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, which falls on Monday’s holiday marking Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday.

An Ivey spokesperson responded to a question Wednesday from The Baltimore Sun by texting: “No, he is not attending.”

Another Maryland federal lawmaker, recently-elected Democratic Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, told The Sun Wednesday she planned to go.

“I will be attending the inauguration because, regardless of whether one voted for President Trump, I believe Marylanders deserve to have a presence during the peaceful transition of power,” she said in a statement.

The intersection of Trump’s inauguration and MLK Day poses a dilemma for many Democrats, particularly those for whom the holiday memorializing the slain civil rights leader holds special meaning. Ivey, Mfume and Alsobrooks are all Black.

Ivey, a Prince George’s County Democrat, said following the November election that he wanted to demonstrate respect for the peaceful transfer of power by attending the swearing-in.

After losing the 2020 election to Democratic President Joe Biden, Trump defied tradition by skipping Biden’s inauguration. Two weeks earlier, a violent mob stormed the U.S. Capitol, seeking to disrupt the final electoral vote count.

“Let me say this,” Ivey told The Baltimore Sun in mid-November. “That is Dr. King’s birthday, and the inauguration of Donald Trump doesn’t fit completely with the way I’ve observed that holiday over the years. So I’m not going to say I’m going to be spending the whole day at the inauguration, but I’m not going to boycott it.”

But Ivey ultimately decided to spend the day performing community service projects “and is choosing to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., that day,” said Ramon Korionoff, his spokesperson.

It’s unclear how many federal lawmakers will or will not attend the ceremony on the steps of the U.S. Capitol.

Dozens of Democratic U.S. House members, including Maryland’s Jamie Raskin and Anthony Brown, skipped Trump’s first inauguration in 2017. Mfume was not yet in office and wasn’t invited. Brown is no longer in Congress; he is Maryland’s attorney general.

A Raskin spokesperson had no immediate comment Wednesday on the Montgomery County lawmaker’s plans.

Before beginning his first term, Trump had stirred anger among Democrats with tweets directed at Democratic Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, a civil rights icon who was among the original Freedom Riders. Lewis died in 2020.

Mfume, a Baltimore U.S. House member, told The Sun last month that he commits to a day of service each year on the MLK holiday.

Mfume, the former president of the NAACP, helped lead a 15-year battle to recognize King’s birthday as a national holiday. President Ronald Reagan signed the legislation into law in 1983.

Have a news tip? Jeff Barker can be reached at jebarker@baltsun.com.