Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell (Wash.) on Tuesday night dodged a question from Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) about the difference between Democrats and socialists during CNN's town hall debate on tax reform.

"The problem is that the Democratic Party in today's Senate has become more extreme. Now Bernie and I have done three of these debates. I like debating Bernie because he's honest, he's candid–he is a wocialist. He admits he's a socialist. He wants to raise everyone's taxes," Cruz said of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt), who also participated in the debate.

He then asked Cantwell what the difference is between socialists and Democrats on taxes.

Cantwell pivoted to castigate the Republican Party for isolating itself, and praise the Democratic Party for being a big-tent party, giving examples of Democrats who won election to Republican incumbents.

"There's room for Bernie and there's room for me," Cantwell said. "The difference is you guys keep trying to isolate your party. It used to be there was everywhere from Susan Collins (R., Maine) to Jeff Sessions, but instead you guys took on people like Dick Lugar, and guess what? We got Joe Donnelly (D., Ind.) And then you put somebody out there in Missouri and we got Claire McCaskill (D., Mo.)."

"You keep narrowing your tent and I'm fine with our big tent," Cantwell added.

The senator from Washington continued her response by talking about the concerns of two small business people from Seattle, who she said were in the audience, but she never addressed Cruz's question.