Chrys Kefalas, vice president of executive communications for the National Association of Manufacturers, announced Tuesday he is running as a Republican for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.).

Kefalas, 36, has talked openly about the possibility of running for several months, but he only recently made his candidacy official. Mikulski announced earlier this year that she will not seek re-election in 2016.

Maryland hasn't elected a Republican to the Senate since 1980, so Kefalas will likely face an uphill battle in his bid to break the cycle. The candidate told Fox News he believes Marylanders "want someone who comes from the outside, who will solve problems ... and who focuses on the issues that people care about."

Before joining NAM, Kefalas was deputy speechwriter for former Attorney General Eric Holder and, before that, a trial and appellate attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice. He previously was deputy legal counsel to former Republican Maryland Gov. Bob Ehrlich.

If elected, Kefalas would be the first openly gay Republican to win a seat in Congress. In a March interview with the Washington Blade, the candidate acknowledged his election would be "a game-changer" and vowed to fight for legal protections for gay and lesbian couples.

"It would go a long way in shaping where Republicans are on the issue of equal rights for all if a member of their party is a colleague like me," he told the publication. http://bit.ly/1YKTmLm

Kefalas wouldn't be the first association employee to join Congress. National Rural Electric Cooperative Association CEO Jo Ann Emerson had worked as a lobbyist for both the American Insurance Association and National Restaurant Association before she was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1996.

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