North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee (R) is running for governor in Nevada.
Lee, who was first elected mayor in 2013, announced his candidacy in a video on Monday.
In it, the two-term mayor attacked the Democratic Party, claiming that socialists control the party he “once knew,” later adding “socialism is a cancer, and if we don’t fight back, it’ll kill us.”
In April, Lee announced that he was leaving the Democratic Party to become a Republican.
Lee also took on the current governor of Nevada, Democrat Steve Sisolak, claiming that he “strangled our economy and freedom,” adding that Democrats are “after our speech, guns and kids.”
In a tweet posted Monday morning, Lee branded himself as an “outsider,” adding that he is running for governor to “stop our state’s tightening embrace of socialism and make Nevada the best state in the nation to work, raise a family, and visit.”
In the announcement video, Lee said he decided to switch his political affiliation because of these issues he raised regarding the Democratic Party.
“So, like Reagan and Trump, I switched parties. I’ve always made my own path,” Lee said.
Lee, who also owns and operates a plumbing business, announced that he was switching political parties during an appearance on “Fox & Friends” in April. The mayor said the Democratic Party was no longer “the party that I grew up with.”
“In the Democratic Party of Nevada, they had an election recently for leadership, and four of the five people were card-carrying members of the socialistic party,” Lee said at the time, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
“It’s not the party that I grew up with 25 years ago in this environment and it’s not the party that I can stand with anymore,” he added.
In March 2017, amid a reelection campaign, Lee announced that if elected that year he would not seek a third term in 2021.
At the time, according to the Review-Journal, Lee said he wanted to finish the work he began then move into retirement to complete a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Lee’s bid for the governorship was reportedly widely rumored ahead of Monday’s announcement, the newspaper noted.
According to the Review-Journal, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo, U.S. Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Nev.) and former Lt. Gov. Mark Hutchinson (R) are weighing bids for the governorship.
Lee served as a moderate Democrat in the Nevada Assembly from 1997 to 2001 before moving to the Nevada Senate in 2004, where he served for 8 years, until he was defeated in a Democratic primary, according to the Review-Journal
In 2013, he was elected mayor of North Las Vegas.