After coming up short in three attempts at elected office, retired engineer Geoff Young is trying to make four his lucky number in the upcoming primary election for Kentucky’s 6th Congressional district.

Young, a Lexington resident and lifelong Democrat, formed the Kentucky chapter of the Green Party in 2012, challenging State Representative Stan Lee of Kentucky’s 45th district.

In 2014, he returned to his Democratic roots and ran for the 6th Congressional district, losing to Elisabeth Jensen in the primary. Last year, he unsuccessfully challenged then Attorney General Jack Conway in the Democratic primary of the Kentucky gubernatorial race.

Young follows the non-violent principles of Indian independence activist Mahatma Gandhi and said that if elected to Congress, he would apply non-violent principles to foreign policy.

“The less we use our military force, the better,” Young said. “America can … and should lead, but not through violence.”

Young advocates for a 50 percent cut to the U.S. military budget, and said we would be even safer “because we’d make fewer enemies.” The U.S. government spent $598.5 billion on defense in the fiscal year 2015, about 54 percent of all federal discretionary spending.

Young described himself as a “Bernie Sanders Democrat,” praising the presidential candidate as the party’s only legitimate chance because Hillary Clinton would lose to any Republican candidate, he said.

Young said he supports the implementation of a single-payer health care system, where the government covers all health costs rather than private insurance companies. He also supports Sanders’ publicly funded college plan, which would cover costs for all Americans up to a four-year degree with a speculation tax on Wall Street activity.

The U.S. House of Representatives primary election is May 17, and the general election is Nov. 8. Young said he is confident that he will be victorious whether he ends up facing incumbent Rep. Andy Barr or Roger Brill, the other Republican candidate in the primary.