Underdog no more: Senate Republicans line up behind Sam Brown in Nevada
David Sivak
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Army veteran Sam Brown has gone from political underdog to establishment favorite in a matter of months as Republicans prepare for another shot at winning a Senate seat in purple Nevada.
The party came within 8,000 votes of defeating Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) there in one of the closest races of the 2022 cycle. The nominee then was former Attorney General Adam Laxalt, who defeated Brown, a relative political newcomer, in the Republican primary.
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Brown lost resoundingly, finishing almost 22 points behind Laxalt. But his fundraising prowess, combined with a powerful personal backstory, piqued the interest of Senate Republicans as they searched for candidates without the political baggage that plagued them nationally last cycle.
Brown announced another Senate run in July, this time for the seat of Nevada Democrat Jacky Rosen. Like his 2022 campaign, Brown, a Purple Heart recipient badly injured by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan, plans to lean into his years of military service. But this go-around, he will have institutional support.
Brown is one of several candidates Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, recruited to run this cycle, a departure from the hands-off approach of his predecessor.
Much of their energy has so far gone into unseating Democrats in Montana and West Virginia, two states that went for former President Donald Trump in 2020. Daines sees a third red state, Ohio, as a must-win but has stayed out of the primary there, satisfied that any of the GOP contenders could win a general election next year.
Nevada is decidedly purple — Rosen won her first term in the Senate ousting GOP Sen. Dean Heller in 2018. But Republicans are bullish Brown can accomplish what Laxalt could not.
“I think we have a real opportunity to pick up the seat there,” said Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), the No. 3 Republican in the Senate.
Party leadership is making no secret of its support for Brown. Daines blessed his candidacy the day he launched, while Barrasso offered an endorsement one week later.
Sen. John Thune (R-SD), the Senate minority whip, told the Washington Examiner he personally encouraged Brown to run.
“I think he’s a terrific candidate, a great story. Married to a South Dakota girl. I think it just puts that race in play,” he said.
Winning the nomination is no certainty — Brown will face Jim Marchant, the failed secretary of state candidate who amplified Trump’s unfounded claims of a stolen election, in the primary. But Brown has sought to establish momentum in the early days of his campaign.
His team announced a $400,000 haul in its first week, compared to the $111,000 Marchant raised in the second quarter.
The endorsements provide another way to signal that well of support. Among rank-and-file members, Brown secured the endorsement of Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), while Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is lending his name in fundraising appeals.
Additional endorsements are likely on the horizon. Brown traveled to Washington last week to speak with Senate Republicans at their weekly conference lunch and subsequently met with members one-on-one, among them Sens. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), Ted Budd (R-NC), and J.D. Vance (R-OH).
Brown emerged from those meetings with at least one new, previously unreported endorsement — that of Mullin, who praised Brown’s “selfless service” to the country.
“His life speaks to that. We need guys like that who want to put America first, and he sacrificed everything for it,” he told the Washington Examiner.
Several others said they were “inclined to” or might endorse Brown.
“He’s gonna be a strong candidate. I expect a lot of our conference to support him,” said Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS), who has yet to endorse in a primary.
The degree of support is reminiscent of the stream of endorsements offered to Tim Sheehy, Republicans’ favored candidate in the Montana Senate race.
“I’m truly grateful for all of the support I’m receiving across the country. Our grassroots movement has the momentum to win in Nevada, and these endorsements are a testament to that fact,” Brown said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “At the end of the day, my top priority is earning the trust and support of Nevadans. Nevadans are who I will always answer to and Nevadans are who I’m fighting for.”
Brown doesn’t have the deep pockets of Sheehy or the NRSC’s recruit in West Virginia, Gov. Jim Justice. But national Republicans believe his personal story will carry him through the primary and general elections — he required years of surgery and physical therapy to recover from severe burns sustained in the IED blast.
Should he beat Marchant in the primary, Brown will run one of the most-watched challenges of the 2024 cycle.
The Senate map is favorable to Republicans, with Democrats forced to defend two-thirds of the seats in play. But Republicans see winning many of those states as ambitious — Nevada, they believe, is truly within reach.
“I think that, you know, outside of Montana, Ohio, West Virginia — it’s probably our best pickup opportunity,” said Vance.
Republicans must net two seats in 2024 to take outright control of a chamber Democrats hold 51-49. If President Joe Biden loses reelection, they only need one.
Democrats have already set out to paint Brown as an extremist, noting he ran to the right of Laxalt on election security in 2022.
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Perhaps sensitive to those attacks, Brown led off his campaign with a decidedly centrist message and has sought to tie Rosen to the “extreme policies” of Biden.
“In the military, no one asks you what party you are in. They just want to know they can count on you to get the job done,” Brown said in announcing his candidacy. “That’s the attitude we need to tackle the problems of today.”