Chad Causey, the former chief of staff of retiring Rep. Marion Berry (D), announced Tuesday that he will run to succeed his old boss in Arkansas’ 1st district.

“I’ve been meeting with voters from across the district, and I’m hearing what they have to say: ‘we need jobs,’ ‘fix our economy,’ and ‘put our needs first,'” Causey said in a news release. “We face some big challenges, and while I don’t pretend to have all the answers, I do promise that no one will listen longer, no one will work harder, and no one will take this responsibility more serious than I will.”

Causey is a Jonesboro native who has worked for Berry for the past decade. His entry into the 1st district contest drew the immediate ire of officials at the National Republican Congressional Committee, who have made it clear they will attempt to paint him as just another Washington insider.

“Give Chad Causey his due — as a guy who’s spent his entire adult life as a cog in the liberal Washington machine, he knows his way around the Capitol,” NRCC spokesman Andy Seré said Tuesday. “But will Arkansans elect someone whose record of achievement consists exclusively of bailing out Wall Street, rubber-stamping Obamacare and racking up $10,000 worth of globe-traveling on the special interests’ dime?”