(JTA) — Jason Kander, the Jewish former Democratic Missouri secretary of state who many speculated had presidential aspirations, said he will run for mayor of Kansas City.

Kander, who was set to make a formal announcement later Monday, joins a field of eight other mayoral candidates, the Kansas City Star reported.

Some believed that Kander, 37, may have been thinking about a run for higher office in 2020. A Democrat with a growing national profile, Kander had hired a national communications strategist for Let America Vote, the voting rights advocacy nonprofit that he founded.

In 2016, Kander lost in a tight contest for the U.S. Senate to the incumbent Republican, Roy Blunt. Kander served two terms in the Missouri House before serving one term as secretary of state.

The Kansas City native is a former U.S. Army intelligence officer who served in Afghanistan. Kander is the son of a policeman and a probation officer.