Nicole LeFavour, an openly gay state senator from Idaho, on Friday announced her bid for the U.S. House of Representatives.

“I'm running for Congress because I love Idaho and we can do better,” LeFavour tweeted on Friday.

LeFavour's bid to represent Idaho's 2nd Congressional District, currently held by Republican Rep. Mike Simpson, was a surprise to many since only a few days earlier she had announced that she wouldn't return to the Idaho Senate.

She told The New York Times that Republican opposition to a gay protections bill which she had sponsored was behind her decision to leave state politics.

“People are just being politically unbelievably spineless,” she said in reference to a committee vote against the measure.

LeFavour must first survive a May 15 Democratic primary against Jack Chappell and Eldon Wallace to become the candidate to challenge Rep. Mike Simpson in the fall.

In a statement, she said she was entering the race because “sadly I feel Congress is not doing all it could to set our economy right.”

Half of Congress' openly gay members won't return next year. Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank last year announced his retirement and Wisconsin Rep. Tammy Baldwin is running for the U.S. Senate.