Mitch McConnell’s handpicked candidate, Sam Brown, is set to launch yet another bid for Nevada Senate on Monday – setting up a messy and expensive race for the GOP nomination against Trump-endorsing former Assemblyman Jim Marchant and potentially even more Republican hopefuls.
Nevada State Democratic Party Spokesperson Johanna Warshaw:
“Between Mitch McConnell’s hand-picked candidate Sam Brown, MAGA election denier Jim Marchant, and a host of other far-right candidates eyeing a Senate run, Republicans are in for a messy primary that will expose their deeply flawed candidates as out of touch with hardworking Nevadans.”
Here’s what you need to know about the looming Nevada Senate Republican primary:
- Brown was pushed into the 2024 race by Mitch McConnell and D.C. Republicans, despite vocal skepticism from Nevada Republicans who have raised “questions about his ability to seriously challenge Rosen after having yet to win a primary in his two runs for office.”
- Brown lost last year’s Senate primary to Adam Laxalt by more than 20 points and now faces Marchant who has never lost a primary. Brown primarily challenged Laxalt from the right, repeatedly attacking him for failing to successfully overturn the results of the 2020 election in Nevada.
- Brown and Marchant hold far right positions that put them squarely out of step with everyday Nevadans. Both oppose abortion even in cases of rape or incest, supported efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Nevada, and want to abolish the Department of Education.
- Brown only moved to Nevada five years ago, and he immediately started trying to run for office – first exploring a campaign for the Assembly in 2020, then losing the primary for U.S. Senate in 2022. He first ran for office in Texas in 2014, and as a candidate for state legislature (he lost that GOP primary too), Brown said: “It will literally take an act of God to get me out of Texas.”
- Additional candidates could enter the GOP primary. Other candidates openly mulling a Nevada Senate run include Trump’s former ambassador to Iceland, Jeffrey Ross Gunter, a MAGA-inspired GOP mega donor with the potential to self-fund his campaign.
