Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Muslim man who lost Congress bid will run for U.S. Senate

Jesse Sbaih

John Locher / AP

In this May 5, 2016, photo, Jesse Sbaih, then a Democratic candidate for Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District, speaks with The Associated Press in Las Vegas.

A Las Vegas-area attorney who said his Muslim faith turned establishment Democrats against him in a failed bid for Congress last year says he'll run for U.S. Senate in 2018 against incumbent Republican Dean Heller.

An aide says Henderson resident Jesse Sbaih (SPAE') filed federal election documents this week and released a video to start a campaign to be the first American Muslim in the Senate.

Heller spokesmen didn't immediately respond to messages.

Sbaih said last year that former Democratic U.S. Sen. Harry Reid told him that his Muslim faith would prevent him from winning election.

Reid's advisers denied that religion was the reason Reid told Sbaih he couldn't win.

Sbaih went on to lose the Democratic primary to Jacky Rosen. She was elected to Congress last November.