City councillor Marc McGovern meets Joe Biden in the run-up to his presidency in a photo posted in August 2020. (Photo: Marc McGovern via Facebook)

Councillor Marc McGovern announced his reelection campaign Monday, asking voters to return him to office to continue work on priorities including affordable housing, homelessness, income and food insecurity, and climate change. He is the first sitting councillor to declare, and follows only one other declared candidate: challenger Theodora Skeadas, who announced as early as mid-February.

McGovern was first elected to the council in 2013 and is seeking his fifth term in office; he served as mayor for the 2018-2019 term. Before the council, he held a School Committee seat for four terms.

“I know that despite our achievements, there is still a tremendous amount of work to do to ensure that Cambridge is the socially and economically just community we want it to be,” McGovern told supporters in an email, explaining his latest run. “Although more and more people are getting vaccinated, we know that the Covid-19 pandemic is going to continue to impact our community, and that the economic recovery is going to be long. My background in social work and my political experience has allowed me insight in developing and passing policies that make tangible differences in people’s lives. I want to continue to work on your behalf and provide steady leadership during these challenging times.”

In the 2019 elections, McGovern won 1,621 top votes in Cambridge’s ranked form of voting, the fifth-most among a field of 22 on the ballot.

Nomination papers for the Nov. 2 municipal elections don’t become available until July, and are usually due back at the end of that month; 50 confirmed signatures qualifies a resident to run.

This post was added May 7, 2021, to correct its absence at the time of McGovern’s announcement in April.