Nevada candidate: Harry Reid told me not to run because 'a Muslim cannot win this race'
A Muslim-American candidate for a House of Representatives seat in Nevada claims that Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told him to end his campaign.
"He said, 'You should not run for this office,'" because "a Muslim cannot win this race" said Jesse Sbaih, who has lived in America for 29 years since emigrating from Jordan as a child. Sbaih, a Democrat, reports that the conversation with Reid took place in August, before he had officially declared his candidacy but while he was seeking Reid's endorsement.
"I did not feel [my religion] was an issue" before the meeting, Sbaih told the Washington Post. "They made it an issue. My campaign is about me being an American."
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Reid's office denied Sbaih's allegation outright, calling the candidate a "liar" who is "going to lose." Sbaih's opponent in his Democratic primary, Jacky Rosen, was reportedly recruited by Reid himself.
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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
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