Stacey Dash’s campaign for Congress is over before the real fun could start.

Dash, the actress turned conservative political commentator, said in a statement that she is withdrawing from the race in California’s 44th Congressional District, which covers parts of San Pedro, Wilmington, North Long Beach and south Los Angeles and up north as far as South Gate.

The performer best known for the movie and TV series “Clueless” had been ridiculed in some social-media circles when she announced in late February that she would run as a Republican, challenging Rep. Nanette Diaz Barragán, a first-term Democrat who formerly served on the Hermosa Beach City Council.

In a statement Friday afternoon, Dash called her withdrawal “a difficult choice.”

“At this point, I believe that the overall bitterness surrounding our political process, participating in the rigors of campaigning, and holding elected office would be detrimental to the health and well-being of my family,” Dash wrote in a statement posted on Twitter.

I have released this statement on my campaign. It’s not an easy one. pic.twitter.com/HvKuUad48F — Stacey Dash (@REALStaceyDash) March 30, 2018

Dash said she had hoped to help “improve the lives of people who have been forgotten for decades by the Democratic Party.”

“I believe we live in a system of ‘Plantation Politics,’ which offers people on the lower end of the economic spectrum little more than symbolic gestures instead of true political empowerment and improvement,” Dash wrote, saying “decades of government corruption and political disempowerment have created a system where skyrocketing home prices, dirty needles in the streets and long bus trips to other districts for jobs are somehow considered acceptable by the government officials representing the 44th District.”

Dash said she will continue to speak out.

Since Dash entered the race a month ago, the contest became more contentious, with Compton Mayor Aja Brown‘s announcement that she was running, setting up a potential Democrat-vs.-Democrat battle with Barragán. Also entered in the June 5 primary is Jazmina Saavedra, a Republican businesswoman.