Retired Army Captain Sam Brown, who garnered a last-minute endorsement from Donald Trump over the weekend, is expected to win the Nevada Republican Senate primary this fall to face off against Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), according to Decision Desk HQ.
Brown defeated several challengers for the Republican nomination, but his most formidable opponent was Jeff Gunter, a former U.S. ambassador to Iceland who served during the Trump administration.
Brown had already been endorsed by the Senate Republican campaign organization before he received an endorsement from Trump just hours after the president appeared in the Silver State over the weekend. Gunter had attacked Brown for his loyalty to Trump, calling him “Brown the Cheat.”
Gunter claimed Senate Republicans had stepped in to ask Trump to give Brown a final endorsement, but the National Republican Senatorial Committee and Trump senior adviser Chris LaCivita disputed that accusation.
“Proof why @DrJeffGunter didn’t get @realDonaldTrump’s endorsement is your habit of making up crap. President Trump makes his own decisions and this is another example of him making a wise choice.” LaCivita wrote in X.
Still, Brown’s victory in the Republican primary was widely expected even before President Trump endorsed him.
Brown will face off in November against Rosen, who is serving his first term, after defeating Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) by 5 percentage points in 2018. But Nevada elections have been historically close, and in 2022, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) won reelection by less than a percentage point over Republican Adam Laxalt.
“Congratulations to Capt. Sam Brown on his overwhelming primary victory,” National Council of Congressional Representatives Chairman Steve Daines (R-Mont.) said in a statement Tuesday night. “A West Point graduate, Sam is an American hero who has once again answered the call to serve his country. His support for securing the border and curbing inflation stands in stark contrast to his opponent’s record of endorsing Joe Biden’s disastrous policies.”
Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC)Published a one-minute adThe ad targets the retired Army captain, who won the primary. The group said the ad, which will air on YouTube and target independents, will highlight his previous comments about Yucca Mountain, in which he has previously said he would consider using the mountain as a nuclear waste storage site.
Brown later retracted those comments,I said it with X“It should not and will not be re-opened as a nuclear waste site.”
The ad also targets Brown on abortion, Social Security and Medicare.
“Sam Brown is a MAGA extremist with a self-serving political agenda that would hurt hard-working Nevadans, including banning abortion, phasing out Social Security and Medicare, and even reopening Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste repository,” DSCC spokesperson Amanda Sherman Beatty said in a statement. “Brown has shown Nevadans that his agenda is too extreme and too dangerous to even get anywhere near the U.S. Senate.”
The nonpartisan election forecasting site Cook Political Report rates the seat as a “50-50” chance.
