Former Attorney General Eric Holder is re-entering the political fray – 'getting back on the field,' as he put it – and even thinking about a 2020 White House bid.

Yahoo News interviewed Holder while he was doing political work in California this week and he shared his plans with the news outlet.

'Now is the time to be more visible,' Holder said. 'Now is the time to be heard.'

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Former Attorney General Eric Holder told Yahoo News he wants to 'get back on the field' and potentially run for president in 2020

Eric Holder (left), who was the country's first African-American attorney general, is the first Democrat to publicly express interest in the next presidential race

Holder, who was President Obama's first attorney general, and the country's first black attorney general at that, realized that in politics he was flying mainly under the radar.

'Up to now, I have been more behind-the-scenes,' he told Yahoo. 'But that's about to change. I have a certain status as the former attorney general. A certain familiarity as the first African-American attorney general.'

'There's a justified perception that I'm close to President Obama,' he continued. 'So I want to use whatever skills I have, whatever notoriety I have, to be effective in opposing things that are, at the end of the day, just bad for the country.'

Most recently, the D.C.-based Holder was working with statehouse Democrats in California to rout some of President Trump's plans.

In Los Angeles Monday, Holder spoke at a news conference held in support of SB-54, a measure that would ban the Trump administration from forcing California police department to aid federal immigration officials in deporting undocumented individuals.

He's also chairing the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, which will be aided by Obama.

The aim is to produce fairer Congressional maps after the 2020 census, as Democrats have found themselves struggling to gain an advantage in the House of Representatives in part thanks to gerrymandered districts.

Like many of his Democratic colleagues, Holder didn't expect to be so active in politics after leading the Justice Department because he expected the party's nominee, Hillary Clinton, to win.

'I thought, frankly, along with everybody else, that after the election, with Hillary Clinton as president, I could walk off the field,' Holder told Yahoo.

'So when she didn't win, I thought, "We'll have to see how this plays out,"' Holder continued. 'But it became clear relatively soon – and certainly sooner than I expected – that I had to get back on the field and be in effective opposition.'