Detroit native Keith Ellison, a U.S. representative from Minnesota, publicly announced his candidacy for the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee on Tuesday.

Ellison faces competition from former presidential candidate and Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who previously held the DNC chairman role from 2005 to 2009. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, who ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination this year, is also a candidate.

Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress and one of only two on Capitol Hill today, grew up Catholic in Detroit's Palmer Woods neighborhood and graduated from the University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Wayne State University before getting his law degree from the University of Minnesota.

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who gave Hillary Clinton her only serious challenge in the 2016 Democratic race, is backing Ellison. So is Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, another favorite of the party’s progressive wing, and Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, who’s expected to be the minority leader in the next Congress.

For his part, Ellison said the party needs to rebuild from the ground up, focusing on local elections and party leaders at the precinct level to boost turnout and govern in city councils and state legislatures. The party, he said “needs to put the voters first, not the donors first.”

“You’ve got to have a vision to strengthen the grassroots,” Ellison said on ABC. The party should have “a laser-beam focus on everything we do, and everything we do should animate and empower them at the grass-roots level for working people across this country. That’s how we come back.

“It has to be the guys in the barber shop, the lady at the diner, the folks who are worried about if their plant is going to close — they’ve got to be our focus,” Ellison said.

Ellison campaigned in Detroit on Clinton's behalf during the campaign.

Ellison isn't the only politician with Michigan ties who is under consideration for a top party role. Michigan Republican Party Chairman Ronna Romney McDaniel, niece of former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, is said to be under consideration to chair the Republican National Committee.