Talia Fuentes is an optimist. She is running as a Democrat in Arizona's 5th district, which in the last presidential election favored the Republican Romney by nearly 30%. So on a daily basis, in person and in the media, she tries to connect to conservative voters, many of whom are Trump supporters.
She doesn't directly try to convince right-wing voters to go against Trump, because its not a successful road in this district. But she tries to reach people in other ways, with things they are familiar with.
Some voters watch a lot of reality television. So she brings up things from television like Mythbusters, to try to get across the difference between real science and fraud.
"I really believe that science is the bridge to reach these conservative voters."
"Because of the internet its changed how much people are researching and how much information we have.
"Republican, Democrat that doesn't make a difference, we are all human beings, we understand that we're all driven by biology."
Fuentes worked as a radio personality, so she has experience communicating in sound bites. But she'd rather talk about politics and science than entertainment. After five years in radio, Fuentes says she was "very much over talking about Kim Kardashian."
She wants to apply that ability to communicate rational science to the public, drawing on her degree in Applied Biology and experiences with wildlife conservation and humane society work in countries from South Africa to Nicaragua.
"I realized I have an ability that not a lot of other scientists do, and that is to speak to people."
I asked her how she'd address partisanship in Congress
"A lot of these issues have a lot to do with the terminology that people use. As soon as they hear the word 'Democrat', they think you re just a roll in the mud hippie pig or something like that. A lot of scientists are democrats, because we look at the numbers, we're able to distinguish between junk science and real, peer reviewed research. And we need to really distinguish the difference between so people can understand what they're reading and make these ideas for themselves.
"We have a lot of biosciences here in Arizona, its not talked abou ta lot, but we're so fortunate we have this industry that's largely ignored.
"We had an amazing thing happen in the Arizona legislature. Andrew Sherwood, Democrat and Bob Thorpe, Republican, created the science caucus.
"The republicans in the party don't run away from hard line research, they really don't. When you have a large number of people pointing to this research, that's how Bernie Sanders was able to get things done, dealing with a republican congress."
She sees the political system itself a bit like an organism undergoing evolution.
"To have evolution at its finest, most basic principle, you have to have a preexisting structure to build from. You do have mutations but you have to have a preexisting structure."
"That's how I view our government, and the democratic party, you have to have a structure to build on to make progress to move in a positive direction. All I want to do is help inspire other people, and let them know that there is a possibility for something different. We really could take this election if we get the right backing, the possibilities are endless.
"This having a negative mindset about people, I see goodness in people, my parents like to say I wear rose colored classes - and now I really have a pair of rose colored glasses.
Running in Arizona's 5th district as a democrat, Ms Fuentes may need those rose colored glasses. Win or lose, she is making a mark as a positive and articulate individual looking towards the future, and perhaps marking out a path away from the divisive antagonism of the present.