Former Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich announced on Wednesday he would run for Congress in a bid to unseat Rep. Max Miller (R-OH).

Kucinich said he would run as an independent, although he served in the Ohio House of Representatives and ran for president twice as a Democrat. 

“Service to a nation must be superior to service to a political party,” Kucinich said. “My vote will become pivotal in a closely divided Congress.”

The former presidential hopeful is running to represent Ohio’s 7th Congressional District, which has a solid Republican leaning of R+7 for 2024, according to the CookPoliticalReport.

Other contenders in the race for Ohio’s 7th District besides incumbent Republican Miller include Democrats Doug Bugie and Matthew Diemer, who will vie for the Democratic nomination.

Kucinich, who served as Cleveland’s mayor from 1977 to 1979 before serving in the Ohio House from 1997 to 2013, will have the most experience as an elected official out of the field.

The Cleveland native most recently served as campaign manager for independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. until October 2023.

Kucinich was rated as one of the more liberal members of Ohio’s congress during his time in the House, while Miller received a 79% grade on the Heritage Action Scorecard, which rates politicians based on how they voted on a variety of matters. Heritage is a conservative think tank and rated Miller as an “average House Republican.”

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“Now more than ever, America needs persons with experience in Congress to guide our nation through this difficult time,” Kucinich said.

The Washington Examiner reached out to Kucinich for comment.