SEATTLE — Representative Dennis J. Kucinich, the liberal Democrat from Cleveland, was a long way from home — 2,000 miles give or take. But he found plenty of political admirers in this stronghold of progressive political thought.

“Run, Dennis, run,” urged Karen Pooley, a 48-year-old sales representative as Mr. Kucinich addressed her and other chanting protesters who were outside a Chase bank to rally against government policies that favor financial institutions while teachers are being laid off.

Mr. Kucinich is indeed thinking about running, but it would not be another try for president and maybe not even an eighth House race back in Ohio. Instead, the 64-year-old Mr. Kucinich, who first gained fame as the “boy mayor” of Cleveland in the 1970s, is delicately examining the idea of running for Congress here in Washington State next year. Given Ohio’s loss of two House seats, his district is likely to disappear when new map lines are drawn.

But Washington is gaining a seat, and Mr. Kucinich figures his aggressive brand of antiwar, pro-working class politics could sell well in a solidly blue state where he has ideological allies and was popular in his White House bids in 2004 and 2008. It is a somewhat novel idea that could be summed up as: Have seniority, will travel.