Pearland City Councilman Derrick Reed announced Monday he is running for Texas' 22nd Congressional District, becoming the third Democrat to vie for the nomination to face U.S. Rep. Pete Olson, R-Sugar Land.

National Democrats have set their sights on the district since last November when former foreign service officer Sri Kulkarni came within five points of beating Olson. Kulkarni is again seeking the Democratic nomination, along with lawyer and political commentator Nyanza Moore.

The district covers much of Fort Bend and portions of Brazoria and Harris counties. It includes Pearland, where Reed has served on city council since winning his seat in a runoff in 2015. He is the first nonwhite city council member in Pearland history.

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In a video announcing his campaign, Reed highlighted his background working from the age of 13 to support his single mother, who died early from a drug addiction. He also cited his time as a prosecutor for the Harris County District Attorney's office in calling for criminal justice reform.

"Despite the different obstacles we face as Americans, we continue to get ready each day to follow our paths to achieve the American Dream," Reed says in the video, which has not yet been publicly released. "The problem is, some of the obstacles we face were created by some of the very same people that we elected to run this country."

Though historically a Republican stronghold, Texas' 22nd Congressional District has trended blue thanks largely to the fast-diversifying Fort Bend County. An influx of immigrants has spiked the county's population and made it one of the most diverse in the nation.

In 2018, Olson won re-election by about 4.9 percentage points, his first general election victory of fewer than 19 percentage points since he was elected in 2008.

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