Sam Brown, an Army veteran who was the overwhelming favorite in Nevada's Republican Senate primary before former President Donald J. Trump gave him a last-minute endorsement, won the nomination on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press.
He will face off against the state's incumbent Democratic Rep. Jacky Rosen in one of the most closely watched Senate races this year.
With 68% of the votes counted, Brown has 57% of the vote, dominating the field of primary candidates. His closest rivals, former U.S. ambassador to Iceland Jeff Gunter, have about 16%. Former state representative Jim Marchant has about 7% and Air Force veteran Walter Grady, nicknamed Tony, has 6%.
In his victory speech to a crowd of enthusiastic supporters at a Reno hotel, Brown said he was focused on holding Rosen and President Biden accountable for their policies and offering hope to struggling voters.
“Tonight, we continue to convey hope that the American Dream is not dead,” Brown said, “and the American nightmare under Joe Biden and Jacky Rosen ends tonight.”
The win was a kind of redemption for Mr. Brown, who moved from Dallas to Reno, Nevada, in 2018 to run for the U.S. Senate in 2022 but lost in the GOP primary to former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt. This time around, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, a centerpiece of the GOP establishment from the start, which works to elect Republicans to the Senate, endorsed Mr. Brown early on and worked to eliminate his rivals.
They failed to achieve that. Roughly a dozen Republican candidates vied for the right to face off against Mr. Rosen, a low-profile Democrat seeking reelection in a battleground state where recent elections were decided narrowly.
But most candidates did not receive the endorsement of Brown, and while Brown traveled around the country to raise money and garnered support from Republican heavyweights, no other candidate came close to raising his total. Brown also won the support of the state's Republican governor, Joe Lombard.
Brown has campaigned as if he was already in the general election, skipping debates with his Republican opponents, avoiding aligning himself too closely with the party's hardline conservatives and keeping the focus on Rosen, who won the Democratic nomination on Tuesday.
Rosen attacked Brown after her victory Tuesday evening, and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which works to elect Democrats to the Senate, quickly released a digital ad blasting Brown.
“My opponent is a MAGA extremist who will say anything to get elected,” she said in a statement, rattling off a laundry list of issues she plans to attack him on, including abortion. “In this election, voters will be faced with a clear choice between a senator who has always put Nevadans first, and a politician who only moved here a few years ago to run for office.”
During the primary, Brown was reluctant to back Trump's latest challenge to the presidency, but that hesitation did not go unnoticed among some Republicans, leading Trump to wait until the final days of the campaign to endorse Brown.
Sensing an opportunity from the right, Mr. Gunter sought to shake up the race in April, unveiling a multimillion-dollar ad campaign touting his MAGA credentials while blasting Mr. Brown for not being loyal enough to Mr. Trump. The attacks forced Mr. Brown and his supporters to enter the primary for the first time, but ultimately did little to change the trajectory of the race.
Brown's unique background could appeal to voters: In 2008, he was nearly killed when his vehicle ran over a roadside bomb while serving in Afghanistan, and he underwent more than 30 surgeries during his three-year recovery, which left him permanently scarred.
Brown has often referred to his near-death experience in his appeals to voters, and in his speech on Tuesday he said he was speaking to Americans “who are at a point similar to that day in 2008, when hope is on the verge of fading.”
And perhaps the unofficial slogan of his campaign — the one he encouraged his audience to shout on Tuesday — is the same phrase an Army comrade told Brown as he helped put out the flames that were burning him in Afghanistan: “I'm gonna get you.”
“Sam is an American hero who once again answered the call to serve his country,” Sen. Steve Daines of Montana, who is leading the Republican effort to elect Brown to the Senate, said in a statement after Brown's victory.
Brown's campaign will likely emphasize border security and inflation, popular Republican talking points, and blame Biden and Rosen for Nevada's slow economic recovery from the pandemic.
Rosen's campaign plans to highlight his bipartisan reputation and the times he ran afoul of Biden, who is unpopular in the state, and will attack Brown's record on abortion rights while pointing to wins on issues such as lowering prescription drug prices.
Brown had previously said she supported a 20-week birth control ban with no exceptions for rape or incest. After announcing her candidacy, she made it clear she did not support a nationwide ban, telling The New York Times that the issue should be left to individual states.
