By Albert Lin

A San Diego man running to become the first openly gay Republican elected to Congress proudly includes his partner in a new campaign ad.

Carl DeMaio, a former San Diego City Council member who lost the city’s 2012 mayoral race to recently ousted Bob Filner, is running for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

In the 75-second spot, which labels DeMaio a “new generation Republican,” a female narrator extols the virtues of San Diego residents and then of DeMaio. Over stills of DeMaio holding hands with his partner, Johnathan Hale, at a gay-pride parade and then together under a rainbow flag, the narrator says, “He believes in equality and diversity, and is a defender of our personal freedoms.”

The shots are subtle: They’re onscreen for five seconds; in the first it’s not immediately obvious that DeMaio and Hale are holding hands, and in the second there are others under the flag with them. But they’re also ground-breaking: This is believed to be the first time a candidate from either party has made an ad featuring a same-gender partner.

“This is who I am,” DeMaio told The Wall Street Journal. “It’s something that’s important to me. I want to embrace equality, and feel like the party should, too.”

DeMaio points out that most candidates feature “their spouses, their children, their household pets” in ads, and he wanted his to be in the same vein. “I don’t see it as such a big deal,” he told The Washington Post.

DeMaio wanted to include Hale (who is Publisher of San Diego Gay & Lesbian News and CEO of Hale Media) in an ad when he ran for mayor, but he said he was talked out of it by campaign consultants—consultants who he is not using for this campaign. “I think people will be very supportive,” DeMaio said. “A majority of Republicans agree with me.”

The ad so far is only available online, but DeMaio’s campaign hopes to edit it down into a TV spot. A spokesperson told CNN that the campaign will keep the shot of DeMaio and Hale in the shortened version.

Two other gay Republicans are also running for Congress this year: Dan Innis in New Hampshire and Richard Tisei in Massachusetts. Former Republican Congressmen Jim Kolbe of Arizona and Steve Gunderson of Wisconsin are gay, but neither disclosed his orientation until he had served multiple terms. There are currently seven openly LGBT members of the House and the Senate, all Democrats.