U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal has long been at the forefront of the fight to obtain President Donald Trump’s tax returns.

“I didn’t pick this fight but I’m not going to shy away from it,” Neal told a crowd at the annual state Democratic party convention held in Springfield last month.

What he has shied away from are requests for his own financial records. For months, Neal has told MassLive and The Republican he plans to release his tax returns, while declining to provide a timeline for when they will be released.

Now, he’s facing a challenger in Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse who has released eight years of federal and state tax returns, a move Neal’s campaign has dismissed as a distraction.

The longtime Western Massachusetts representative in Congress assumed the role of Ways and Means Committee chairman in January, a powerful position that put the Springfield Democrat at the forefront of the debate on tax and trade.

Among the issues Neal said he would tackle is the release of the president’s tax returns.

In the months since, House Democrats have taken steadily escalating steps in seeking the records, from a written request to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig to subpoenas issued to Rettig and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to a federal lawsuit.

“As part of the Ways and Means Committee’s investigation into the mandatory audit program at the IRS, I used my authority under Section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code to request six years of the President’s tax returns,” Ways and Means Committee Chairman Neal said in announcing the lawsuit in July. “Despite its mandatory obligation, the Treasury Department failed to comply with the law and denied the Committee’s request. The Administration also refused to comply with the subpoenas I subsequently issued in an effort to obtain the materials. Due to that noncompliance, the Committee is now pursuing this matter in the federal courts.”

Trump refused to release his tax returns during the 2016 presidential campaign, the first major presidential candidate in nearly 40 years to decline to do so. The then-presidential candidate said he declined to release his returns because he was under audit. The IRS later said there is no reason why tax returns under audit cannot be publicly released.

Since taking office, Trump has told advisors he’s willing to take the fight over tax returns to the Supreme Court.

As Neal leads the fight for the president’s financial records, questions have arisen about his own, which he has not made public.

The congressman told The Republican’s editorial board he will release his tax filings "at some time down the road” in early June.

Four months later, Neal has yet to release his returns or provide a specific timeline for when they will be public, despite repeated requests from MassLive.

Neal began his political career in the 1970s, first in the Springfield City Council, then as mayor of Springfield before being elected a member of the U.S. House of Representatives where he has served for three decades.

While the release of tax returns isn’t as common for members of Congress as it is with presidential candidates, Neal’s unreleased tax returns have opened him up to criticism and pressure from his Democratic challenger in Morse, who is pushing for more financial transparency. It has also put Democrats in an awkward position at the national level as they try to pressure President Trump to release his financial information.

The Holyoke mayor announced this summer he will mount a primary challenge for Neal’s 1st District seat in 2020.

Morse released the last eight years of his tax returns two weeks ago, with records dating back to his first term as mayor in 2012.

As recently as last week, Peter Panos, a spokesman for Neal’s 2020 congressional re-election campaign, reiterated that the congressman fully intends to release his returns but declined repeated requests to specify when they would be released.

He called Morse’s release an attempt “to distract voters from his failed record in Holyoke,” citing Holyoke Public Schools being placed in receivership and a historic home burnt down in the city.