Sen. Bernie Sanders had just announced his intent to unseat a sitting House Democrat — this time, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus from North Carolina — when Rep. Hakeem Jeffries decided it was time to confront Sanders himself.
The House Democratic leader warned Sanders against meddling in House primaries, particularly one involving a Black Democrat, in such a critical midterm election year, according to three Democrats familiar with the conversation.
“He seemed to not care,” Rep. Greg Meeks of New York, a Jeffries ally who was also on the call, said of Sanders, recalling the previously unreported phone call. The intervention from those powerful Washington Democrats came just before incumbent Rep. Valerie Foushee edged out her challenger, Nida Allam, in the March primary.
Asked recently to describe the conversation, Jeffries would say only: “It was honest.”
Heading into the midterms, Sanders has perhaps never been more powerful in Democratic politics. But the Vermont independent is now at the center of a brewing party civil war that could sway the fate of key midterm seats with control of Congress on the line.
