Arizona’s former Green Party Senate candidate Angela Green is defending herself against accusations that she has spoiled the Democrat’s chances of winning the race.

While the race is still too close to call, Republican nominee Martha McSally currently leads Democratic nominee Kyrsten Sinema by 15,908 votes (with 99.3 percent of precincts reporting). Green got more than twice that amount, 38,597 votes, despite dropping out of the race less than a week before Election Day — too late for her name to be removed from the ballot.

When she quit the race, Green said that the only way to make her Senate race matter was to drop out:

After seeing the most recent poll numbers, I felt the only way I could make my Senate race matter is to withdraw from it.I knew I wasn’t going to win, so being a true candidate for the people and not the politics, I felt that if I withdrew and could endorse a candidate closest to the ideas and views of those whom I represent, then at least I can feel as though this withdrawal from the Senate race will not be in vain. So I made the hardest decision of my Green Party campaign and that was to drop out and endorse Kyrsten Sinema of the Democratic Party. Although not perfect, she is better than the alternative.

Arizona Republicans sent mailers to Democrats attempting to link Green to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). The Arizona Republic reported that the mailers “appear to be a tactic to peel off left-leaning voters from U.S. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema.”

As I’ve always stated, please choose the candidate who best represents you. Although it’s not over, whoever wins, the PEOPLE of AZ have chosen. I know the Dems think all 3rd party voters would’ve chosen them, but I’m sorry to say that’s just not the case. Same goes for Reps. — AGreen2020 (@a_green2020) November 7, 2018