The president of a Huntsville non-profit organization that focuses on helping children is running for Congress.

Michael Sweeney said he will run as a Democrat for the 5th Congressional District seat in north Alabama held by U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks.

Sweeney becomes the third Democrat to enter the race in a field that's far more crowded than in recent years. University of North Alabama communications department chair Butler Cain and former Huntsville city attorney Peter Joffrion have also declared their candidacies for the Democratic nomination.

While Brooks has been re-elected to Congress three times, a total of just two Democrats and one independent have challenged him.

On the Republican side, Huntsville businessman and Iraq veteran Clayton Hinchman is running.

Brooks, of course, is seeking the seat in the U.S. Senate held by Luther Strange in the special election later this year. Should Brooks not be successful in his bid for the Senate, he could still seek re-election to the House next year.

Sweeney is a Huntsville native and Navy veteran who worked as a commercial photographer in Minnesota before returning home in 2001.

His non-profit organization - Breaking Boundaries Foundation - first emerged to help with disaster relief following the deadly tornado outbreak in 2011. The foundation later shifted its focus to helping children.

"We started off as disaster relief and kind of morphed into a non-profit that helps people and children and so we're seeing the issues that affect people from a federal level like health care and you can only do so much at the state level," Sweeney said. "That's why to me it's more important to be at the federal level because I see it every day, how the federal level is affecting people's lives."

Breaking Boundaries aids children in a variety of ways but Sweeney said that if a child has a need, his non-profit works to meet that need. That ranges from visiting sick children in hospitals to helping grant a wish for a child with a terminal illness to purchasing a band instrument for a child who can't afford one.

Of particular attention is meeting health care needs - whether it's helping pay for medical equipment or even insurance.

"We help children any way," Sweeney said. "We try to help the best way we can. We don't limit ourselves to health care. We're a children's organization. We're not going to turn away a child."

With that exposure to federal-level issues through the non-profit, Sweeney saw a need to run for Congress. He has never run for public office.

He also said Brooks was not meeting the needs of his constituents.

"One of the main reasons I decided to run for office was to expand on my public service leadership, having a non-profit," Sweeney said. "You have a certain degree of leadership in public service and with that, you have a passion for the public. I decided to expand on my public service leadership because we need leadership in the 5th District.

"Mo Brooks is not providing that. We need some good, solid leadership, someone with experience in leadership and we're not getting that leadership from Brooks."

At the same time, Sweeney said that the political rhetoric needs to be toned down and replaced with bipartisan ideas and solutions.

"You just have to be yourself and offer solutions and be yourself and be a leader and let people know you and having confidence in you," Sweeney said of the challenge of running as a Democratic in a Republican state. "There are things in the Republican agenda that I disagree with. You don't just slam the Republicans and say they are doing this or doing that. You offer a solution.

"You can't get into this anti-Trump, anti-Mo Brooks mode. From what I hear, it's just turning people off. People are frustrated with both parties. I've had Republicans tell me on Facebook I wish you were a republican because I like your ideas."