Republican Adam Laxalt has launched his campaign for Senate, filing a statement of his candidacy with the Federal Election Commission.
The former state attorney general is the consensus choice of the Republican establishment in Nevada and Washington, D.C., to challenge Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto in 2022 and is expected to enjoy the backing of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. Laxalt, who was chairman of former President Donald Trump’s campaigns in Nevada in 2016 and 2020, and could be on track to receive an endorsement from the former president.
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Laxalt’s Senate bid has been long in the making, but he was waiting for the conclusion of Saturday’s sixth annual Basque Fry, a political gathering that typically draws GOP presidential hopefuls, before announcing. Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, one of this year’s headliners, basically made the announcement for Laxalt during remarks to a crowd the Associated Press estimated at 4,000.
“Adam, I guess he’s not supposed to say that he’s going to be your next United States senator. There’s some campaign finance rules against it,” Cotton said. “But what do I care about some stupid rules like that? Adam Laxalt is going to be the [Republican United States Senate [nominee] for the Battle Born State in 2022.”
Republican insiders in Nevada expect Laxalt to have a clear path to the nomination. However, he will have to get past at least one primary challenger.
Although Laxalt has a strong relationship with grassroots Republicans in Nevada, Sam Brown, an Army veteran who saw combat in Afghanistan, is running as the upstart conservative outsider. Brown’s supporters are angling to undercut Laxalt by defining him as an establishment toady who would make a mediocre general election candidate. Laxalt was elected attorney general with less than 50% of the vote in 2014 and lost his bid for governor four years later.
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“Sam Brown is a focused, hard-working candidate who has been winning over many of Adam Laxalt’s past supporters, key donors, and bundlers,” a Republican strategist who supports Brown claimed. “GOP voters don’t want 2022 to be a rerun of the last two losing cycles. There’s real Laxalt fatigue, and GOP voters hungry for a win are looking for someone new.”
The 2022 midterm elections are shaping up to be a referendum on President Joe Biden, a dynamic that should benefit Republican congressional candidates. However, Cortez Masto enters her first reelection bid favored to hold on to Nevada, a swing state that has not elected a Republican at the top of the ticket since 2014.
