Roll Call: Senate GOP’s favorite in Nevada did not trust McConnell last cycle
Mitch McConnell’s handpicked candidate and establishment darling Sam Brown was caught on tape saying last cycle that he doesn’t trust McConnell and wanted to see new Republican leadership in the Senate, according to new reporting from Roll Call.
During his failed Senate bid in 2021, Brown said: “The other thing is, guess who else has endorsed Adam? Mitch McConnell. So it’s, you know, if we trust Mitch McConnell, well then, well, I’m sorry for you, but I don’t.”
Now, during his second bid for Nevada Senate, Brown has openly embraced McConnell and the GOP establishment – proving once again that he’s a typical politician who will do or say anything to finally get elected.
Nevada State Democratic Party Spokesperson Johanna Warshaw
“Sam Brown openly bashed the same D.C. Republicans whose endorsements he’s now touting less than two years later. He’s proving once again that he’s nothing more than a fraud and a typical politician who will do or say anything to get elected.”
Roll Call: Senate GOP’s favorite in Nevada did not trust McConnell last cycle
By Niels Lesniewski
- Two years ago, Sam Brown was campaigning for Senate in Nevada as an outsider, and he wasn’t shy about criticizing Senate Republican incumbents and those in the Capitol Hill “swamps.”
- Times have changed for Brown, who is now the candidate national Republicans want to see take on Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., in 2024. National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Steve Daines of Montana praised Brown’s entry into the race, and other Republicans, including Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, have endorsed him.
- As the Washington Examiner reported, Senate Minority Whip John Thune of South Dakota encouraged Brown to run again.
- Some of Brown’s most candid remarks last cycle, according to audio reviewed by CQ Roll Call, came in commentary about Cotton and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
- During an exchange at the Republican Men’s Club of Northern Nevada in November 2021 about why then-President Donald Trump had endorsed Laxalt months earlier, Brown brought up the fact that McConnell was also supporting the eventual GOP nominee.
- “The other thing is, guess who else has endorsed Adam? Mitch McConnell. So it’s, you know, if we trust Mitch McConnell, well then, well, I’m sorry for you, but I don’t,” Brown said. “For those people who do care about endorsements, that’s one that people ought to, ought to be looking at as well.”
- The same month, at an event in Las Vegas, Brown disparaged political action committees aligned with the Senate leadership.
- “I’ve taken no money from their PACs,” he said. “I’ve taken none of their endorsements. They have their candidate in this primary. You probably know who it is. I owe Mitch nothing, and I would love to see new leadership.”
- As for Cotton, Brown told attendees at a December 2021 fundraiser that the Arkansas senator was a “creature” of one of what Brown described as the multiple “swamps” in the nation’s capital. Brown referenced the scene at the Basque Fry, a Republican political event organized by a Laxalt-supporting political action committee.
- “And Tom Cotton was sitting there having conversations over this fence and shaking people’s hands. What is wrong with these people that they can’t get out from behind a fence in an event that is largely extremely conservative people, and get out and mingle with the folks?” Brown said. “The fact that we even set up that type of environment where we have the haves and have nots. It’s just, it’s ludicrous, and I don’t appreciate it.”
