Carson City — Retired Army Capt. Sam Brown, who lost Nevada's 2022 GOP Senate primary, registered his formal candidacy Thursday for first-term Sen. Jacky Rosen's seat, which Republicans have targeted nationwide as a good chance to defeat an incumbent Democrat
Since he declared his candidacy last summer, less than a year after losing his campaign to challenge Nevada's second Democratic senator in the western battleground state, Purple Heart recipient Brown has been the GOP front-runner in a crowded primary field.
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto defeated Republican Adam Laxalt by 8,000 votes in the western battleground state, the closest Senate contest in 2022. Brown, who was nearly murdered by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan that damaged his face, has again prioritized national security and painted Rosen as a Biden and Democratic supporter.
Nevadans have suffered under Biden and Senate Democrats. Brown stated during a gathering outside the state house in Carson City that this movement prioritizes people over politicians. This was after he and his wife, Amy, filed their filing papers to the secretary of state.
He tweeted Thursday on X, formerly Twitter, that “Joe Biden and Jacky Rosen had their chance, and they’ve destroyed the American Dream.” In 2022, Laxalt received ex-President Donald Trump's backing and branded Brown a carpetbagger who migrated to Nevada after losing a 2014 Texas state Legislature bid.
Jim Marchant, a former state Assembly member who lost the 2022 Nevada secretary of state race after pushing Trump's 2020 election fraud story, and Tony Grady, an Air Force veteran and former lieutenant governor candidate, are Brown's GOP primary opponents.
In January, Marchant and Grady were two of seven Republican candidates that debated in Reno and criticized Brown for not participating. They call him a “establishment” candidate. Rosen filed for the Democratic nomination this month without any well-known opposition. In 2018, she beat GOP Sen. Dean Heller as a first-term Las Vegas congressman.
Nevada State Democratic Party spokesperson Katharine Kurz said Thursday that Mitch McConnell chose Brown in “one of the messiest and most crowded Republican Senate primaries in the country.”
She stated, “MAGA extremist Sam Brown is a self-serving politician who puts his party leaders in Washington, out-of-state billionaires, and special interests over what’s best for hardworking Nevadans.
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