This week, actress and advocate Cynthia Nixon officially announced her candidacy for governor of New York. Nixon is running in the Democratic Party primary against incumbent Governor Andrew Cuomo, and she’s ready with criticisms. When subway delays made Nixon late to her official campaign event on Tuesday, she told a reporter this was a “quintessential moment in Cuomo’s MTA,” echoing the many complaints about New York transit under Cuomo’s administration. But Cuomo’s allies are ready to fight back. Supporter Christine Quinn, who mounted an unsuccessful bid for mayor of New York City in 2013, gave an interview to the New York Post in which she derided Nixon as “an unqualified lesbian.” (Quinn and Nixon are both openly gay.)

“Cynthia Nixon was opposed to having a qualified lesbian become mayor of New York City,” Quinn told the Post, referencing Nixon’s endorsement of Mayor Bill de Blasio during the 2013 primary. “Now she wants to be an unqualified lesbian to be the governor of New York. You have to be qualified and have experience. She isn’t qualified to be the governor.”

As quoted in the Post, Nixon’s response to Quinn’s criticisms was that “her being a lesbian and my being a lesbian” is not the issue, and that the race is about “the corruption in Albany. It’s time for an outsider. I’m not an Albany insider.”

Quinn clarified her comments in a series of tweets after her interview was published Tuesday, writing in part, “Cynthia Nixon’s identity has no bearing on her candidacy and it was not my intention to suggest it did. I want to be clear about that. I would never, EVER, criticize someone because of their identity.”

Nixon isn’t the only person complaining about corruption in New York’s state capital. Earlier this month, the New York Times editorial board argued that the number of trials and allegations charging Cuomo associates with corruption has given the governor a “black eye.”

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