Democrat Liz Watson, who is challenging incumbent Rep. Trey Hollingsworth (R-Ind.), said on Sunday that she won’t back House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) if she’s elected in November.
Watson told CBS 4 in Indianapolis that she would not cast her vote for the long-time Democratic leader “because we need new leadership in Washington.”
“I won’t vote for Nancy Pelosi because we need new leadership in Washington,” Watson said. “I’ve been out across the district listening to folks and they know that Washington is broken; they know that it is a system that needs to change.”
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Watson is the latest Democratic congressional hopeful to distance herself from Pelosi, whose leadership has become a key target for Republicans in the midterm elections.
So far, more than two dozen Democrats running for the House have said they do not plan to back the California Democrat.
Watson is challenging Hollingsworth, who first entered Congress last year, to represent Indiana’s 9th District. President Trump won the district in 2016 by nearly 27 points.
But Democrats are targeting the race, going after Hollingsworth as a detached politician who only moved to the district from Tennessee in 2015 to pick up the House seat.
Watson went after the freshman representative over that move on Sunday.
“Trey Hollingsworth is not a Hoosier. He’s from Tennessee,” she said. “He moved here because he thought this was a convenient seat in Congress to buy.”