ANDOVER — Nadeem Mazen, a Cambridge city councilor who grew up in Andover, has filed paperwork to run for the 3rd Congressional District when U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas steps away in 2018.
Mazen filed an official statement of candidacy for the seat and a statement organizing a campaign committee with the Federal Election Committee on Thursday. He becomes the fifth Democrat to express serious interest in the 3rd Congressional District and the seventh overall.
In a statement, Mazen said he would make an announcement about his campaign plans on Oct. 1 at the Andover Town House.
“In my home town of Andover and across the MA-3 district, I hear from residents who are renewing their participation in community building — across racial, socioeconomic, and town lines,” Mazen said in the statement. “This is the mission I have dedicated my life to, through work in social entrepreneurship, education, and government. I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.”
Mazen, one of the state’s few Muslim elected officials, is a Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate who has served two terms on the Cambridge City Council. He announced in the spring that he would not run for another term on the council and would instead seek higher office.
In June, Mazen filed FEC paperwork to challenge longtime incumbent U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano in the Democratic primary for the 7th Congressional District.
Tsongas announced in August that she would not seek re-election at the end of her term after more than a decade in office.
Mazen grew up in Tsongas’ district and graduated from Phillips Andover Academy. His FEC paperwork indicating interest in the seat lists an Andover address.
After graduating MIT, Mazen founded a creative agency called Nimblebot and a makerspace called danger!awesome. In 2015, he helped co-found Jetpac, a nonprofit advocacy group that helps Muslims and other minority groups seek public office.
He is the second Greater Boston resident to draw on local roots for the 3rd District race. Daniel Arrigg Koh, another Democratic candidate, resigned from his job as Boston Mayor Martin Walsh’s chief of staff and moved back to Andover with plans to run.
Three other Democrats are eying the seat: state Sen. Barbara L’Italien of Andover, former lieutenant governor nominee Steve Kerrigan of Lancaster, and Lori Trahan, who served as chief of staff to Marty Meehan when he was a congressman for the area.
Rick Green, founder of the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, and businessman Scott Gunderson are running as Republicans.
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