Bernie Sanders says he backs Tim Canova over Debbie Wasserman Schultz in CD 23 race

Bernie Sanders says he backs Democrat Tim Canova in his effort to knock off Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

Wasserman Schultz is running for re-election in Florida’s 23rd Congressional District.

“Well clearly I favor her opponent, his views are much closer to mine than Wasserman Schultz’s is,” the Democratic presidential contender told CNN’s Jake Tapper in a pre-taped interview that will air Sunday on CNN’s State of The Union.

Sanders then went on to say unprompted that if he were to be elected president, “she would not be reappointed to be chair of the DNC.”

Canova, a professor of law and public finance at Nova Southeastern University, is running for office for the first time in challenging Wasserman Schultz, who has served in congress since 2004, and been DNC chair since 2011.

She has come under fire from Sanders campaign and his supporters over the past year, with the perception that the DNC has “rigged”the nomination for Hillary Clinton fueled by a variety of incidents, such as the initial debate schedule that put most of the candidate forums on low viewing nights like Saturdays or in one case, before the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

Then came the controversy in December, when Sanders sued the DNC after the party briefly blocked the Sanders campaign’s access to party files and data following a report that Sanders staffers had improperly accessed Clinton’s campaign information.

Wasserman Schultz has maintained throughout the process that she and the DNC have been neutral throughout the primary season.

Canova has raised over a million dollars in his congressional challenge to Wasserman Schultz since entering the race in January, prompting a fundraising email from her team that read, “Debbie is being bombarded. Opponents with their undisclosed, outside money are trying to take her down and kick her out of office by spinning a web of distortions.”