There is a new controversy surrounding a congressional race in Nevada, and it all revolves around Sen. Harry Reid.
Representative Joe Heck is running for Reid's Senate seat, and so Heck's seat in the House of Representatives is open.
But one hopeful claims Reid is hindering his path to Washington.
Jesse Sbaih is an attorney, an immigrant, a businessman, and a Muslim. Sbaih maintains Reid told him his faith would keep him from getting a seat in Congress when the two met privately last August at the Paris hotel-casino in Las Vegas.
"One of the first things Senator Reid said to me, he said, 'let me be blunt, I don't think you can win this race because you're a Muslim,'" said Sbaih.
The Reid camp flatly denies he said anything about Sbaih's faith and his campaign.
They sent us a statement saying in part:
"Jesse Sbaih is using Senator Reid's name to seek his 15 minutes of fame but that doesn't mean he is telling the truth. Senator Reid never said that Jesse couldn't win because of his religion."
Why is this coming out now if it happened months ago? Sbaih says the Reid camp is doing more than just throwing their support behind his opponent, Jacky Rosen, but they are hindering his own campaign efforts.
"Several attempts were made to sabotage our campaign and to drown our voice, among them was hindering our ability to hire staff on the ground," said Sbaih. "We went to D.C. last week and that trip was intended to meet with labor unions and some other folks. We learned from our finance consultant that Senator Reid had called some of these people that we were trying to see and told them not to meet with us."
Reid's office said they merely suggested Sbaih get more political experience before running in one of the nation's most competitive districts.
Their statement goes on to say, "Jesse wouldn't listen and instead is spreading lies. He will lose and in the process damage his reputation for future office."
