EXCLUSIVE — Republican Rhode Island congressional nominee Victor Mellor said Monday in comments to the Washington Examiner that he does not plan to remain a foreign agent for Cuba if elected to the House.
The MAGA candidate drew attention and criticism over federal disclosure records showing he has partnered with the communist government on “improving Cuban-American relations” through media-related projects. Mellor said he has only spoken with Cuban officials to foster “peace” and would “absolutely” pull out of the partnership if elected, as federal law bars sitting members of Congress from being registered foreign agents.
“So far, I’ve done everything according to the law,” Mellor told the Washington Examiner. “I haven’t broken the law yet. Why would I do it then?”
Mellor won the GOP nomination for Rhode Island’s 2nd Congressional District on Wednesday against party-endorsed candidate Stephen Skoly. He has not been in contact with Cuba since he left the island in June, he told the Washington Examiner.
President Donald Trump has taken a hawkish approach toward Cuba by throttling the island with sanctions, criticizing its history of espionage and political subversion against the U.S., indicting former officials over a deadly 1996 attack, and threatening to overthrow its one-party government. Mellor previously said he believes Cuba presents opportunities for Rhode Islanders.
“I don’t understand how people think I have that kind of influence,” Mellor told the Washington Examiner.
The nominee’s foreign agent disclosures with the Department of Justice describe proposals for a “Partner with Cuba” campaign responding to U.S. politicians’ criticism of the regime, the Washington Examiner previously reported.
“There are factions of Cuban-Americans — concentrated in South Florida, with deep institutional reach into the U.S. Congress, the media, and the donor class — who have spent decades shaping the dominant American narrative about Cuba,” said one Partner With Cuba document disclosed to the DOJ. “Blackouts. Shortages. Sanctions. Collapse. Regime cruelty. Imminent failure. Their narrative is powerful, well-funded, and consistently reinforced in U.S. press coverage.”
“We do not attack their narrative. We do not argue with their facts,” the Partner With Cuba document said. “We speak on different terrain — metaphor — and show what their narrative cannot see: the life that is growing inside the country they have been describing as dying.”
The project argued impoverished Cubans do not “need more pressure” on their country to remedy the suffering, according to the documents.
What Mellor promoted in his discussions with Cuban officials was “just simple common sense,” he told the Washington Examiner.
“Have respect and don’t attack the people in the United States. And that’s all that said, have respect and talk peacefully,” he said. “That’s all I said to the Cuban government.”
“I shared my perspectives on how best to move to an open market economy,” Mellor added. He also said Cuba engaged in less “saber-rattling” against the U.S. after his talks.
Mellor said he also secured a pilot program to send food to starving children in Cuba.
Mellor’s foreign agent disclosures also raised questions because they claimed he lived in Englewood, Florida, despite campaigning in Rhode Island. A newer Sept. 4 filing updated his statements to reflect a Warwick, Rhode Island, address instead. Mellor said he got his Rhode Island driver’s license in October 2025 and has lived in the Ocean State for over a year, now living in a rented Warwick house.
“I had to list the houses I owned in the United States,” Mellor told the Washington Examiner about the filings. “My lawyer just put them in the wrong place. That’s all that was.”
CUBAN FOREIGN AGENT RUNNING FOR CONGRESS CLAIMS CONFLICTING RESIDENCIES
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced another round of Cuba sanctions on Sept. 3, targeting a family member of former dictators Fidel and Raul Castro, a state-owned bank, and entities “exploiting” Cuba’s economy. U.S. military officials are also evaluating possible options for attacking the island, CBS News reported in July, citing anonymous sources.
Mellor stressed that he does not aim to subvert Trump or Rubio’s agenda toward Cuba.
“The only way we’re going to get to prosperity is through peace, and that’s what it says in the paperwork,” Mellor told the Washington Examiner.