Guests at the Republican National Convention next week will see TV spots featuring a prominent member of their party, San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, voicing his support for marriage equality, two pro-same-sex marriage groups announced Friday.
"As a Republican, I believe in conservative values like responsibility and limited government," Sanders says in the ad, funded by Freedom to Marry and the Human Rights Campaign.
"Our party is changing on this issue, and thanks to leaders like Dick and Lynn Cheney, Laura Bush, Ted Olson and Cindy McCain," he continues, referring to several high profile Republicans who have voiced support for marriage equality. "Marriage strengthens families and we need more of that in this country, not less."
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The GOP seems unlikely to change its stance on the issue this year. The Republican platform will re-emphasize the party's opposition to same-sex marriage and its support for the Defense of Marriage Act and a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
As HuffPost's Sam Stein and Amanda Terkel pointed out on Friday, this year's presidential campaign has been sidetracked multiple times by social issues, including same-sex marriage, despite the Mitt Romney campaign's desire to talk jobs and the economy full-time.
Romney opposes same-sex marriage, and has said so repeatedly.
"My view is the same as it's been from the beginning," he said earlier this year. "I don't favor civil unions if it's identical to marriage, and I don't favor marriage between people of the same gender."