He once sought swing voters in the swingiest of swing seats and ran for president of Arizona as the favorite son candidate – according to his mom, at least – but Gary Swing is trying on a different party for next year’s election.

After several congressional runs on the Green Party ticket and a Boiling Frog Party bid for the U.S. Senate last year that didn’t make it to the ballot, Swing announced Thursday he’s joining the Unity Party of Colorado and plans to run in the 1st Congressional District.

It won’t be the first time Swing, a Denver-based cultural events promoter, has taken on U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, the Denver Democrat serving her 10th term in Congress. But it will be the first time the centrist Unity Party will have a candidate on the ballot for the congressional seat, after attaining official minor party status in the state this year.

“I’m running for Congress on a platform of peace, environmental, and election reform issues,” Swing said in a statement. “There just wasn’t enough peace in the Green Party, and I’m excited to join my fellow Uniters and carry the Unity Party banner in Colorado’s capital.”

Swing has run against DeGette twice before, both times as a Green. His most recent run in the 1st CD was in 2012 – the same year he asked Arizona voters to pick him as their president – when he got about 1.5 percent of the vote. He garnered about the same percentage of the vote when he first ran against DeGette in 2010.

Bill Hammons, the founder and state chairman of the Unity Party, said he was excited Swing would be carrying its banner.

“Our voter registration numbers in Denver are second only to Arapahoe County’s,” Hammons said, “and I have no doubt his candidacy will accelerate our expansion as he gives Diana DeGette a run for her money, a member of Congress who has served long past the term limits the Unity Party advocates.”

The Unity Party crossed over to minor party status in Colorado – joining the Greens, Libertarians and American Constitution parties – when it logged its 1,000th registered member in early June. Among other things, it means the party can nominate candidates directly to general election ballots rather than its candidates having to petition their way on. As of Dec. 1, the secretary of state’s office reports there are 1,106 Uniters – that’s what the party decided to call its members – out of 3,743,783 active and inactive registered voters in the state, or a hair under 0.03 percent.

Swing once ran for Congress as a Gren in the 6th Congressional District in 2014 – when a local political blog drew Swing’s attention describing it as the “swingiest of swing seats” – and took home 2 percent of the vote.

Last year, Swing made some effort to challenge U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet on the Boiling Frog Party ticket, a nod toward the adage that a frog in cool water will just sit there if the temperature is raised gradually, eventually boiling to death.

“It’s not a true story, but it’s a well known metaphor,” Swing said in an interview before launching his campaign. “Things get worse and worse. But people don’t protest. They don’t rise up. They don’t rebel. They don’t do what is necessary to save themselves from destruction.”

As things turned out, Swing instead took the frog metaphor to Arizona – where his mother and other family live – and won the 2016 Green Party nomination for the U.S. Senate. He ran against incumbent Republican John McCain and received 5.5 percent of the vote

Swing first ran for office more than two decades ago, challenging Democrat Penfield Tate III on the Green Party ticket for the open House District 8 seat in northeast Denver in 1996, winning about 8.5 percent of the vote. Two years later, Swing switched to the Pacifist Party and ran for the U.S. Senate.

When he isn’t running for office, Swing likes to climb mountains and hike. He became the 16th person to climb every one of Colorado’s 637 mountains over 13,000 feet, and he’s backpacked more than 15,000 miles, including the length of the Triple Crown Trails – the Appalachian, Pacific Crest and Continental Divide trails. According to a release, Swing is currently walking southbound on the Appalachian Trail.