Katie Hill, a Democratic congressional candidate in California, said she avoids the term "single-payer" when discussing health care in order to not alienate voters in her district.
A video released by an anonymous campaign tracker shows Hill discussing how she communicates her ideas to voters.
"Do you see yourself having to ... give on some issues, or soft-pedal some issues in order to be able to capture votes?" an unidentified woman asked Hill. "Is there anything you're gonna find yourself doing a little adjustment on in terms of strategy just to be able -- "
"I think for the most part it comes down to the way we communicate things than it does to really what the stance is," Hill began to respond. "So, for example, if I went into the district – this isn't going to be something that I'm like getting blasted all over Facebook for, right? Ok," she asked, appearing to gesture towards the camera.
An unknown person confirmed that only they could share the video.
"But I shouldn't go into the district and talk about single-payer, right? Like, that word by itself is going to be something that just immediately turns off a lot of people," Hill said.
"But if I talk about how we need to make sure that everybody has access to health care and that it's affordable for everybody and how having a government option at the very least – that's something that people can really get behind. So I think it's more about the way that we talk about things than it is about being very far apart on the issues," she continued.
Hill is running against Republican incumbent Rep. Steve Knight in California's 25th Congressional District. Two polls from last month show a competitive race, with Hill reaching 50 percent in one poll and Knight leading by 2 percent in the other.