Former President Trump gave a last-minute endorsement in the battleground state of Nevada’s Republican senatorial nomination race.
“Sam Brown is a fearless American patriot,” the former president wrote in a social media post Sunday night, hours before Tuesday’s primary elections in western battleground states. “As your next senator, Sam will work tirelessly to secure our border, end immigrant crime, stop inflation, grow our economy, and provide strong support for our great military and veterans.”
Brown’s endorsement of Trump came just hours after headlining a rally in Las Vegas, solidifying her as the front-runner in a crowded Republican primary to face off against Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen in a November election that could determine whether Republicans can retake the Senate majority.
Trump announces who he’ll support in key Senate battlegrounds
Former President Trump, who is considered a possible Republican presidential candidate, spoke at a campaign rally held in Sunset Park in Las Vegas on June 9, 2024. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)
The endorsement was also a win for Montana Senator Steve Daines, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the campaign arm of Senate Republicans. It was the latest example of the seemingly powerful alliance Daines has forged with Trump to shape the 2024 Senate races in key districts across the country, including in key states that will decide both the Senate and the presidential elections.
“I’m asking him to endorse Sam Brown, yes. And I think it’s very close,” Daines predicted in an interview with Fox News’ Aisha Husney a week ago. “He likes Sam Brown very much. I’m confident that you’re going to see President Trump endorse Sam Brown in the very near future.”
Six key Senate seats Republicans want to retake in November
Mr. Brown, a former Army captain who was severely burned and permanently scarred when his car was hit by an explosive device during the Afghanistan war in 2008, will be a boon for him as he runs for the Senate for the second year in a row, trying to fend off a field of rivals that includes Jeff Gunter, a wealthy dermatologist who was the president’s former ambassador to Iceland.
Republican candidate for the Nevada Senate, former U.S. Army Captain Sam Brown. (Sam Brown, Nevada)
“Daines has been working behind the scenes to solidify Trump’s support,” a source familiar with the matter told Fox News, adding that the NRSC chairman “has had numerous discussions with Trump about the election.”
This year’s Senate district maps closely overlap with crucial states that Trump narrowly lost four years ago and must win to retake the White House, including Nevada, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan and Arizona.
Additionally, Daines and Trump are currently aligned in all key battleground state races, with both endorsing Brown, former Rep. Mike Rogers of Michigan, Dave McCormick of Pennsylvania, Eric Hovde of Wisconsin and 2022 gubernatorial candidate Kali Lake of Arizona.
They also supported Tim Sheehy in last week’s Republican Senate primary in Montana, in which Republicans are seeking to retake a Democratic-held seat in the Republican-dominated state.
A senior Republican strategist working on the Senate race, who requested anonymity to speak more freely, told Fox News that Daines and the former president “share the goal of nominating a candidate who will help President Trump, not hurt him, in must-win states.”
Daines credited his “strong, productive working relationship and friendship” with Trump with bridging the lingering internal divisions between the former president and longtime Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
“From the very beginning, the president and I have worked very closely and very carefully to find a candidate that we can agree on, the best candidate who can win not only the primary but the general election,” Daines emphasized in an interview with Fox News Digital last month.
Democrats see things differently when it comes to Daines and the candidates Trump supports.
“Damaging revelations about Republican Senate candidates extend to lies about their campaign histories, finance scandals and a lifetime of unverified statements and policy positions,” David Bergstein, communications director for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, argued in a recent memo.
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Democrats Control the U.S. Senate, Republicans hold a 51-49 lead, but this year’s Senate elections will favor Republicans, as Democrats will be defending 23 of the 34 contested seats.
Three of the seats are in Republican-leaning states won by former President Trump in 2020 – Ohio, Montana and West Virginia – but Democratic Senator Joe Manchin is not running for reelection.
Democrats are holding on to five more seats in key battleground states for the general election. They are also trying to defend an open seat in heavily Democratic Maryland, where former two-term Republican Gov. Larry Hogan is running for U.S. Senate.
“I want 51 votes. That’s a majority,” Daines said last month when asked what he was aiming for in the November election.
The senator has taken a starkly different tone from his predecessor, Sen. Rick Scott of Florida.
Scott predicted the party would win a 55-seat majority in the 2022 midterm elections, but fell far short of that projection as Republicans faced setbacks at the ballot box in key elections and were unable to recapture the Senate majority they lost in the 2020 elections.
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) leaves the U.S. Capitol to speak at a press conference in Washington, DC, on May 3, 2023. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
“Looking at the results in ’22, nobody was happy,” Daines said. “Everybody wants to win. Nobody wants to lose. We looked at a strategy that would start with finding a candidate who could win, not just the primary, but the general election.”
Senator Daines made headlines in a Fox Digital interview when he was sworn in as chairman of the NRSC in December 2022. The senator vowed to “do whatever it takes to ensure Republicans have a majority.”
This included the NRSC’s involvement in contested Republican primaries, a major change from the commission’s predecessor.
A year and a half later, Daines said, “We now have candidates in most of these states who are not only able to win their primaries, but who are now competitive in every general election.”
Much of the blame for the 2022 Republican Senate losses has been placed on Trump, who shaped key primary contests, some of which saw candidates repeatedly contest his 2020 presidential loss to President Biden and endorse or reluctantly deny his unproven claims that the defeat was the result of a “rigged” and “stolen” election.
Herschel Walker of Georgia, Blake Masters of Arizona, Adam Laxalt of Nevada and Mehmet Oz of Pennsylvania all won their primaries with the backing and encouragement of President Trump, but all lost.
The situation is different in 2024, with President Trump, the NRSC and McConnell all almost completely on the same page when it comes to recruiting candidates for the Senate race.
“We exchange ideas,” Daines said of his working relationship with Trump, “There is trust and there is constructive dialogue. We text frequently and we talk to each other … as we shape the 2024 Senate district.”
Get the latest 2024 campaign updates, exclusive interviews and more on Fox News Digital’s Election Hub.
