The chair of the communications department at the University of North Alabama in Florence is running for Congress, seeking to win the seat held by U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks.

Butler Cain filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday and is touting his campaign on social media.

He is attempting to become the first Democrat to hold the 5th Congressional Seat since Parker Griffith was elected to Congress in 2008.

Brooks has faced a Democratic opponent in three of his four elections to Congress and faced an Independent candidate in the other election. Steve Raby gave the strongest showing against Brooks, winning 42 percent of the vote in Brooks' first Congressional election.

Brooks collected more than 60 percent of the vote in his three re-election campaigns.

Brooks is "seriously considering" a campaign for Senate later this year and is expected to make his decision within the next week. Brooks could still run for re-election in the House next year if he is not elected to the Senate.

Running as a Democrat, Cain said, was about offering choices to voters.

"One of the things I noticed when I came back here and voted in the November elections, there were many state and local races that had no Democratic candidate at all," he said. "There were so many races that were unopposed. I have a philosophical concern about that no matter which party is in control or dominate at the time. I feel like voters ought to have viable choices no matter how they decide they might want to pull the lever."

Aware that Alabama is among the reddest states in the country, Cain described himself as a "moderate Democrat."

"I just wanted to make sure that folks who might want to have an opportunity to listen to a moderate democrat and to hear some ideas that may not be reflected in some of the political conversations that they might be hearing in this part of the state or across Alabama in general," Cain said.

"I would like for them to be able to have a choice of a candidate who they believe in or trust to do the best job he or she can. At the very least, I would like to give them the opportunity to consider me."

Cain returned to Alabama last year to take the job at UNA, leaving his position as an assistant professor at West Texas A&M near Amarillo.

Cain said he has considered a run for public office while living in Texas but wanted to wait until he returned to his home state. A prohibition on state employees running for state office nudged Cain toward seeking federal office.

Cain also worked for 10 years as news director for Alabama Public Radio.

He received his bachelor's, master's and doctorate from the University of Alabama. He was born in Huntsville and graduated from Southside High School near Gadsden.

Alabama's Democratic and Republican primaries for the 2018 election cycle are set for June 5, 2018.