In a video released Tuesday morning, Oregon junior Senator Jeff Merkley announced he would not be running for president, and would instead run for re-election to the senate.

Merkley, a Democrat, has aligned himself with the progressive wing of his party. He has endorsed Medicare-for-all health expansion plan, and co-sponsoring the Green New Deal, a platform proposed by socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. the plan proposes to address climate change by transforming the American economy through a series of government sponsored clean energy platforms.

Generally overshadowed by his senior partner in the senate, popular liberal Democrat and vocal civil libertarian Ron Wyden, Merkley has taken a more prominent stance in national politics since the election of Donald Trump.

Merkley achieved national news coverage when he took to the senate floor and spoke for over 15 hours in the eighth longest filibuster in American history in protest of Neil Gorsuch’s controversial appointment to the supreme court. His attempt to enter an immigrant detention facility on the American border was blocked by guards, an incident which sparked widespread attention and condemnation of the Trump administration’s child separation policy.

In his announcement, Merkley, who was elected in 2008, said he believed his viewpoints were represented by the politicians already running, and that he would be more useful in the senate.

The former speaker of the Oregon state House of representatives declined to endorse any candidate. In 2016, he was the only senator to endorse Bernie Sanders.