U.S. Army veteran Sam Brown on Tuesday clinched the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Nevada, beating a crowded field of 12 opponents just days after securing the endorsement of former President Donald Trump.
The Associated Press called the race for Brown at 8:11 p.m. Eastern, a little more than an hour after the polls closed. With 58% of the ballots counted, Brown led with nearly 57% of the vote.
He will go on to face Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) in the general election in what is one of three toss-up Senate races that could determine party control of the chamber.
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Brown’s victory came on the heels of earning Trump’s seal of approval after months of courting the presumptive GOP presidential nominee for his support. Trump made his endorsement official over the weekend in a post on Truth Social following a Las Vegas rally.
Trump praised Brown as “a good man” at the event, which Brown attended, but did not offer his “Complete and Total Endorsement” until hours later on his social media site.
“Sam Brown is a FEARLESS AMERICAN PATRIOT, a Purple Heart Recipient, who has proven he has the ‘PURE GRIT’ and COURAGE to take on our Enemies, both Foreign and Domestic,” Trump posted. “Sam is now running for U.S. Senate in the Great State of Nevada, primarily because he knows that Crooked Joe Biden and the Radical Left are A THREAT TO DEMOCRACY. Our Country can no longer stand with this Corrupt and Incompetent ‘President’ calling the shots.”
Brown defeated 11 other GOP candidates, including former Trump Ambassador to Iceland Jeff Gunter and former Nevada Assemblyman Jim Marchant. Gunter also attended Trump’s Las Vegas rally on Sunday.
Gunter, a businessman, got upset on social media after Trump’s endorsement of Brown, who was backed by the campaign arm of Senate Republicans. Gunter said Trump didn’t want to endorse Brown but bowed to pressure from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
“Sadly, the suspicions many of us have had about ‘endorsements’ are being confirmed,” Gunter posted.
The campaign arm of Senate Democrats immediately released a new attack ad against Brown following his victory, panning him as a “MAGA extremist.”
“Sam Brown is a MAGA extremist, with a self-serving political agenda that would hurt hardworking Nevadans: banning abortion, phasing out Social Security and Medicare, and even re-opening Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste repository,” Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokeswoman Amanda Sherman Baity said. “He’s shown Nevadans that his plans are too extreme and too dangerous for him to be anywhere near the U.S. Senate.”
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The NRSC praised the U.S. Military Academy graduate as “an American hero who is once again answering the call to serve our country” while dinging Rosen and President Joe Biden.
“Sam’s support for securing our border and getting inflation under control stands in strong contrast to his opponent’s record of rubber-stamping Joe Biden’s disastrous policies,” NRSC Chairman Steve Daines (R-MT) said.
