Nate McMurray is back.

The Democratic former Grand Island town supervisor and multiple-time congressional candidate will run for New York's 26th Congressional District seat that will soon be vacated by Rep. Brian Higgins.

“We have a leading presidential candidate who quotes ‘Mein Kampf.' Meanwhile, our party is anointing someone who has nothing to say about it and whose website features nothing more than a fundraising pitch,” McMurray said in a statement to Spectrum News 1. “I have to run. As I do so, I will fight for Democacy, for healthcare and abortion as fundamental human rights, and for a bubble-up economy that rejects the ‘rich-get-richer’ trickle-down system that has failed America for 40 years.”

McMurray’s entrance sets up a likely primary race in June for the heavily Democratic district. State Sen. Tim Kennedy is the only other person who has announced their candidacy for the seat.

At the same time, local Democratic leadership will meet on Thursday to designate their nominee for the special election to replace Higgins, who says he will leave Congress in February to take on a new role as president and CEO at Shea's Performing Arts Center in downtown Buffalo. Gov. Kathy Hochul has to schedule the special election within 10 days from being notified of a vacancy, which then has to take place within 80 days. It will likely take place in April, when the state's presidential primary is also scheduled for. Any challenger can then mount a primary in the spring to the designated candidate.

McMurray has run for Congress before, unsuccessfully challenging former Rep. Chris Collins in the former 27th Congressional District in 2018. He also lost a special election for the same seat in 2020 to Chris Jacobs and the general election to Jacobs that same year.

In 2023, he also mounted a brief campaign for Erie County executive but quickly dropped it.

The 26th Congressional District encompasses parts of Erie and Niagara counties and the cities of Buffalo and Niagara Falls.