Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) joined the running to take over the powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday, setting up a high-profile contest over U.S. foreign policy and Democrats traditional approach to global affairs.

Castro seeks a role currently held by Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), who recently lost his Democratic primary race. In a statement exclusively shared with HuffPost, Castro vowed to push for a more progressive American approach to the world that values global justice over global dominance and is frank about U.S. missteps abroad and at home.

Lets have a national conversation about the role of the United States in the world, democracy and human rights, war and peace, and the future of our planet. Lets have a real debate, Castro wrote in a message he later released on Medium . For too long, our foreign policy has been dominated by military and other coercive tools like sanctions. In this moment of pandemic and protest, we are confronting hard truths about how unequal our nation remains. Our foreign policy is due for a similar reckoning.

The four-term member of Congress criticized interventions, argued international trade deals must not chiefly benefit corporations and said Washington should be more willing to speak with its adversaries and to cultivate new alliances, looking to countries with which growing numbers of Americans have family ties, such as in Latin America. (He cited his grandmothers journey to the U.S. from Mexico.) He identified the climate crisis and competing with China as Americas chief geopolitical challenges and emphasized valuing the lives of non-Americans.

Castro is running against Reps. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) and Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) for the top post on the committee. Engels primary challenger highlighted the incumbents hawkish positions in attacking him, but neither Meeks nor Sherman is expected to sharply change course if they take up the gavel. Castro represents a third option for Democrats to consider when they choose who will control the committee soon after the November election if, as is widely expected, they maintain the House majority.

Traditionally, selecting new chairs is a behind-the-scenes process its time for a more inclusive process, Castro wrote.

This is the latest competition among Democrats with different visions of how the party should operate. Progressive groups are rallying behind Castro, who they hope would use the post to question conventional wisdom about forcefully projecting American power abroad and act as a check on either a President Joe Biden or a reelected President Donald Trump. Activists want the partys vocal left wing to include demands for big changes abroad as they push Democrats to be more ambitious, as some liberal favorites are already doing.

Wars of choice have diminished our moral standing, destabilized entire regions as the Iraq War did to the Middle East burdened our troops and their families, wasted limited resources, and killed innocent lives, wrote Castro, citing his expertise as the only current lawmaker who has served on the foreign affairs, intelligence and armed services committees and as a vice chair of the foreign affairs panel. Notably, he hinted willingness to challenge a prospective Biden administration, a priority for antiwar groups skeptical of some of the former vice presidents advisers.