TV: Why should people outside your district pay attention to this election?

RM: Even though it's a local election, it's for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Now more than ever for people who are Democrats, progressives, or don't agree that our country is on the right track, this is a way to send the right message. There are only five special elections going on in the country right now. I'm running for two reasons. One is we can send not just a representative to Congress, but a national leader who will work across the country to make sure Democrats take back Congress in two years and set the groundwork to take back our country from Donald Trump. If we send someone who's just going to say the right things and tell constituents what they want to hear ... nothing is going to change. If I get elected ... I don't want to focus on just being elected. I want to make sure I'm out there campaigning, making sure people who donate to my campaign donate to Democrats where we can actually take back Congress. I see leadership looking like Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who can stand in front of the Senate and read a letter from Coretta Scott King and be told to sit down, and it electrifies the country overnight. It's all everyone is talking about. For me, that's the kind of representative I want to be. Not someone just focused on the state or district I come from, but someone who is going to be a leader.

TV: If you are elected, you will be the first openly gay Latino Congressman ever. What do you hope having an LGBTQ Latinx politician in office says to young LGBTQ people?

RM: I think it shows them the sky is the limit for their potential in life. When I was in high school, there was no one who looked like me and who was LGBTQ who was an elected official. Within LGBTQ media and TV, there was no one who looked like me. I think for LGBTQ youth, [having people like you in leadership positions] shows you can do whatever your talent and ability give you. Your sexual orientation, your identity is not a barrier to that. In addition, that we will have someone in elected office who isn't just an advocate, but is speaking from personal experience. Someone who went through that uncomfortable challenge and the fear of retaliation or bullying. It sends a loud message to youth.

TV: How does your identity influence how you think about policies?

RM: When I came out and when I was in high school, and most of my early adult life, that was a time in this country when there was no political consensus, even within the Democratic party, that there should be same-sex marriage. Joe Biden even had to move President Barack Obama to come to that conclusion. For me, I've experienced what it's been like, because of who I am, to not be accepted by "mainstream" politicians. For me it's something I think would impact my decision on policy 1. Because I've lived that experience, and 2. It has given me a deeper sense of equal rights, not just for the LGBTQ community but for women, reproductive rights, equal pay for equal work, and racial justice.

TV: You have a background as a community organizer. Does that give you a unique viewpoint as a politician?

RM: A lot of times I get, "community organizer, what does that even mean?" The best way I can describe it is a community organizer is someone just like yourself. We go out and talk to workers, people, our neighbors. We find out what are the one or two things that affect them and their families every single day that they want to see improved in their community, and then we train them to talk about that issue with their neighbors or coworkers and about how they want to see it improved. We empower people to take on the challenges they're facing in their job and their community. It gives me a unique sense of our current political climate because this district is going to send a Democrat to Congress. All of us say the right things and vote the right way. It's who has the experience of being able to involve people in the political process that can get people to care about things they never cared about before?