ROCHESTER — After a few days of consideration, Rochester City Attorney Terence O'Rourke has officially decided to run as a Democratic candidate in New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District.

O’Rourke, 39, a Haverhill, Massachusetts native and Alton resident, said he was inspired to run for the nation’s House of Representatives after incumbent U.S. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, D-N.H., announced she wouldn’t seek re-election. As he began thinking about who could run in her place, O’Rourke said he realized he offered a number of things that could be beneficial in Washington.

“Making people’s voices heard is what I stand for,” said O’Rourke, referring to his job as an attorney. “I’m a strong advocate for my clients no matter who they (have been). I always work hard for my clients and the public, and that’s what this position is. It’s going to Washington D.C. to advocate for (my) home district and making sure their voices are heard.”

O’Rourke is an Army brat who moved around a lot growing up, but he always considered New Hampshire like a home because his mother is from Durham and because he has family throughout the area.

He was a field artillery officer and paratrooper in the U.S. Army, rising to the rank of captain. He saw combat in Iraq, where he was deployed to advise the Iraqi Army while serving with a unit of Green Berets. He was awarded a Bronze Star Service Medal, Parachutist Badge and Combat Action Badge.

After leaving the Army in 2007, O’Rourke worked as an assistant county attorney for Rockingham County for 2 1/2 years, an assistant U.S. attorney in Alabama for another 2 1/2 years, and as a senior assistant county attorney for Carroll County for seven months. From there, he spent a year at a private Portsmouth firm before becoming Rochester’s first in-house attorney when the city created the position in 2015.

O’Rourke said he believes “deeply in public service” and that his initial focus won’t necessarily be on preconceived key issues, but rather hearing from people in the district about what they want him to focus on.

“It goes back to my career (as an attorney),” he said. “I don’t tell my clients what they want. They tell me and I deliver on it. I think what they think is important, and I deliver on it.”

When asked to provide examples of issues that have his attention, O’Rourke mentioned the opioid crisis, the need for better public infrastructure maintenance, and the need to create better, efficient and sustainable transportation systems.

O’Rourke spoke in detail about heroin in particular, and he said his stances are built heavily on what he saw overseas with the Army.

“Ninety percent of the world’s opium has been grown in Afghanistan,” he said. “We’ve been there since 2001, and the problem has only gotten worse. I’d like to see an end to military occupations in Afghanistan and Iraq and to use that money to … incentivize (opium) farmers to stop growing and move on to a different crop. These opium farmers are responsible for more deaths than ISIS, al-Qaeda and the Taliban combined. We need to stop these needless, endless, losing wars. Fighting a war that is not going anywhere is a waste of our time. We need to stop the (heroin) from coming in.”

O’Rourke continued by stating that he’d question why military campaigns in Afghanistan are ongoing because he believes there isn’t an actual answer to that question.

“You can never get soldiers into a war (for which) you don’t have a goal and you don’t have an exit strategy,” he said. “I dare them to tell me what the goal is now and what the exit strategy is. They don’t have one. They’ve got them in a shooting gallery. They can’t explain why they’re there. When does it end?”

O’Rourke created social media accounts for his campaign over the weekend, as well as launched an official campaign website at orourkeforcongress.com.

Other Democrats being mentioned in published reports as declared or potential candidates for the 1st Congressional District race include Executive Councilor Chris Pappas, former Portsmouth City Councilor Stefany Shaheen, longtime state Rep. Renny Cushing, and Maura Corby Sullivan, a Portsmouth businesswoman who is also a Marine and Iraq War veteran.

Somersworth Mayor Dana Hilliard, Portsmouth lawyer and former Mayor Lincoln Soldati, and state Rep. Mindi Messmer, D-Rye, have also mentioned they’ve considered the possibility of running.

On the Republican side, state Sen. Andy Sanborn and Eddie Edwards, who has been a police chief and the state's top liquor enforcement officer, are both declared candidates.

State Sen. Dan Innis, R-New Castle, has been mentioned by some as a potential candidate for Congress, although he has confirmed to Seacoast Media Group he won't run for the seat in 2018. Innis, who has previously run for Congress, said his focus this fall will be to run for state Senate.