Rep. Jahana Hayes (D-CT) could not defend her stance on supporting the Democrats’ plan for massive tax hikes when asked about the ad released by the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) against her position.

The NRCC’s ad targeted the vulnerable Connecticut Democrat for aligning her support with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and her partisan agenda to increase taxes on Americans.

The ad emphasized Hayes and Pelosi trying to make it harder for the Connecticut families that are “struggling to make ends meet.” The ad also noted that the two Democrats “want to pass the largest tax hike since 1942.”

NRCC Chairman Tom Emmer (R-MI) said the committee-released ads are “a warning to every vulnerable Democrat in the Northeast: Their socialist agenda will cost them their jobs in 2022.”

Hayes, when asked by News 8, an ABC affiliate, about all of the attention on her for wanting to raise taxes she refuted the question by saying, “It doesn’t feel strategic because [the NRCC] tried this strategy in two other campaigns, and the people here are just smarter.”

“Present some idea, I think, that it’s healthy to have opposing viewpoints in different political parties, but what are your, [sic] you’re only ideas are that you oppose me,” Hayes continued to add.

John McKinney, who was a former state Senate Minority Leader, said after her Hayes’s response Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont (D) “has said no tax increases, increasing things like the capital gains tax will make Connecticut less competitive, and yet Jahana Hayes is supporting doubling of the capital gains tax.”

“That’s going to make it harder for people in Connecticut to want to stay in Connecticut because such a large tax increase is going to make them look for places like Florida, like Texas, like Nevada where they can save some money,” McKinney added.

NRCC spokeswoman Samantha Bullock said in a statement after Hayes’s live TV response, “Jahana Hayes had an opportunity to tell voters she won’t raise their taxes, but she didn’t because she supports massive tax hikes that will hurt Connecticut families and businesses.”