Former CNN political commentator John Avlon is running for Congress.

Avlon on Wednesday launched his bid to represent New York 1st Congressional District, where he will be among several Democrats seeking to unseat Republican incumbent Nick LaLota.

“I believe the United States is the greatest democracy the world has ever known,” Avlon said in a video announcing his candidacy. “But right now, our democracy is in danger. This election is not a drill. It's up to all of us to step up and get off the sidelines.”

Avlon also took aim at former President Donald Trump and his Republican allies on Capitol Hill.

“We need to build the broadest possible coalition to defeat Donald Trump, defend our democracy and win back the House from his MAGA minions who don't even seem interested in solving problems anymore,” he said in the video.

Among the issues Avlon said he would try to address in Congress are rebuilding the middle class, investing in infrastructure, protecting women’s reproductive freedoms and combatting climate change.

The 1st District includes all of Suffolk County’s North Shore and about two-thirds of its South Shore. Nearly 33% of the district’s 600,000 registered voters are Democrats, and 32% are Republicans, while another 35.3% are neither.

It’s a district that Trump, a Republican, and Barack Obama, a Democrat, each won twice, although the House seat has been controlled by Republicans since 2015. 

In 2022, LaLota, a Navy veteran who was the chief of staff to the presiding officer of the Suffolk County Legislature, won the race to replace the retiring Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin by defeating county legislator Bridget Fleming. 

Avlon is running against four other Democrats: former state Sen. James Gaughran, former Stony Brook University professor Nancy Goroff, ex-congressional staffer Port Jefferson and former New York City administrative law judge Craig Herskowitz. The state’s primaries will be held June 25.

The National Republican Congressional Committee, which works to elect members of the GOP to Congress, said in a statement that Avlon’s entry into the race “adds even more leftist fuel to an already crowded dumpster fire of a Democrat primary.”

“We look forward to litigating this smug, liberal hack’s past so voters can see just how Left he and the rest of the modern Democrat party have become,” NRCC spokeswoman Savannah Viar said.

LaLota’s campaign attacked Avlon as a “a Manhattan elitist without any attachments to Long Island other than his summer home in the Hamptons,” Axios reported.

According to Newsday, Avlon maintains residences in Manhattan and Long Island’s Sag Harbor. 

Avlon left CNN earlier this month, saying it was “time for a new challenge.”

At the network, he served as a senior political analyst and fill-in anchor. From 2013-18, he was the editor-in-chief and managing editor of The Daily Beast. 

Avlon has written several books, including “Lincoln and the Fight for Peace” last year. He also was a speech writer for former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. 

Avlon is married to Margaret Hoover, host of the PBS public affairs show “Firing Line” and a great-granddaughter of Herbert Hoover, the 31st U.S. president. She and Avlon have two children together.