Levi Sanders, son of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), launched his bid for New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District Tuesday and offered a progressive platform markedly mirroring his father’s.

“This is a unique opportunity to listen to the hard-working men and women of New Hampshire about the issues that matter to them,” Levi Sanders said in a statement on his campaign website. “For over 17 years, I have represented the working class who have been beaten up by the system. It is time to demand that we have a system which represents the 99 percent and not the 1 percent who have never had it so good.”

Levi Sanders said he chose to run for Congress because the “time is up” for lawmakers to deliver universal health care and “Medicare For All,” free college tuition, sharp increases in minimum wages — and to find the “political courage” to pass “sensible gun legislation.”

“That time is up — we must be bold and unwavering in our fight for the people,” Levi Sanders said. “This campaign is about each and every one of us, who strive each and every day, to make this great state and country a better place in which to live.”

Levi Sanders does not live in New Hampshire’s 1st District but instead resides in the state’s other district. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D), who currently represents the 1st District, will not be running for re-election in 2018. Rep. Ann McLane Kuster (D), who is not retiring, represents the 2nd District in which Levi Sanders lives.

Andy Sanborn, a Republican running for the 1st District, slammed Sanders on Tuesday as an “out-of-district socialist” whose views don’t align with the state’s motto, “Live Free or Die.”

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“I am appalled, but not surprised, [that] Bernie Sanders is sending his socialist son here to dismantle our state motto,” Sanborn said in a statement. “We are a state that believes in personal freedom, personal liberty, and individual rights, yet Sanders’ socialist views look to turn New Hampshire residents into government-controlled zombies, where you lose the right to think for yourself, act for yourself, and live free.”

Related: Sen. Bernie Sanders, Meet Sen. Bernie Sanders

Levi Sanders plans to run as a Democrat. His father briefly switched from an independent to run as a Democrat in the 2016 presidential primaries. Bernie Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, ultimately lost the Democratic nomination to Hillary Clinton in a contest many progressive Democrats believe was rigged by the Democratic National Committee.

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PoliZette writer Kathryn Blackhurst can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter.

(photo credit, homepage image: Bernie Sanders for President, CC BY 2.0, by Phil Roeder)