Retired Army Capt. Sam Brown made his long-awaited U.S. Senate candidacy official on Monday, jumping into the race to take on Democratic incumbent Jacky Rosen a year after losing the Republican nomination to challenge Nevada’s other U.S. senator.
Brown’s campaign confirmed his bid Monday morning, and he’ll host an event near Reno in the afternoon to expand on his campaign vision and outline key stances.
Brown, a Purple Heart recipient, was a heavily recruited candidate for Republicans in Washington looking to avoid a repeat of their lackluster showing in last year’s midterms, when flawed GOP candidates helped Democrats win battleground races and hold on to the Senate majority.
He will face a challenge in the Republican primary from Jim Marchant, a former state Assembly member who lost last year’s race for Nevada secretary of state after promoting Donald Trump’s lies of a stolen 2020 election.
Rosen, a first-term moderate in a presidential battleground state, is one of Republicans’ top targets in 2024. Democrats are facing a challenging 2024 Senate map, where they must defend incumbents not only in red states — Montana, Ohio and West Virginia — but also in multiple swing states.
Brown, who was nearly killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan that scarred his face, made military service central to his unsuccessful 2022 Senate campaign. He finished second in the Republican primary to former state Attorney General Adam Laxalt, who went on to lose the general election to Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto.
Brown campaigned on the slogan of “Duty First” and founded the Duty First PAC after his loss to support conservative candidates. At campaign stops, he often told the story of the IED bomb that hit him, leading to dozens of surgeries, the leadership he learned while in the Army, and his Christian faith and sacrifice — “suffering that builds our endurance.”
Brown, who lives in Reno, also ran on a mix of conservative tenets and several specific positions related to Nevada, including protecting gun laws, mining Nevada’s natural resources to increase energy independence and giving more power to local school boards to determine school curriculum rather than the state.
Rosen has posted strong fundraising numbers in her first reelection run. An ally handpicked by legendary Nevada Democrat Harry Reid to run for his former Senate seat, Rosen has steered a moderate path during her first term in the chamber. She was a first-term congresswoman from a Las Vegas-area district when she defeated GOP Sen. Dean Heller in 2018. Before that, she was president of a prominent Jewish synagogue in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson.
National Republicans had long recruited Brown, seeing his ability to raise money from the party’s grassroots and his profile as a war hero as a plus in a solidly purple state known for often unpredictable, razor-thin outcomes.
In 2022, Nevada featured the closest Senate race in the nation when Cortez Masto defeated her Republican challenger, Laxalt, by just 8,000 votes. The race was decided by mail ballots that arrived at county offices days after Election Day and resulted in a nearly weeklong vote count that ended up securing Democrats’ control of the Senate.
Marchant, the other major Republican candidate, has pushed to eliminate voting machines, has falsely said that all Nevada elected officials since 2006 have been “installed by the deep-state cabal.”
Brown and Laxalt did not disagree on many policy stances during their sometimes-heated primary battle, though Brown said that Laxalt did not push hard enough in his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results when Laxalt chaired Trump’s 2020 Nevada campaign. Brown helped Laxalt campaign after losing to him.
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Stern is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Stern on Twitter: @gabestern326.
This evening, Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo will provide the 2025 State of the State address ahead of the incoming 83rd legislative session, which begins Feb. 3, 2025.
Lombardo is anticipated to cover a number of topics including the economy, inflation, education, housing, and more.
In addition, Carson City 5th grade choir students will be performing at the address, and a Seeliger Elementary student will be singing a solo.
Watch the full address here, which will begin at 6 p.m.
CARSON CITY — Gov. Joe Lombardo will give his 2025 State of the State Address at 6 p.m. today in Nevada’s capital, where he will share his goals and priorities ahead of the upcoming legislative session.
“I look forward to sharing the progress my administration has made since my inaugural address, and I’m excited to outline my common-sense vision for our state ahead of the upcoming legislative session,” Lombardo said in a statement, highlighting efforts to keep taxes low, balance the state budget and bring investments to education and the workforce.
“As we look ahead, I’m eager to build on our progress in education, economic development, healthcare, housing, and public safety,” he said.
Every biennium, two weeks ahead of the legislative session, the governor delivers a State of the State Address that outlines his agenda and provides a framework for what lawmakers can expect over the course of the 120-day session.
In last November’s election, Lombardo successfully fended off a possible Democratic supermajority in both chambers that would have allowed Democrats to override any of his vetoes, greatly reducing his power. While Democrats still hold majorities in both the Assembly and Senate and can set their own agenda, any bill they pass must ultimately be signed into law by Lombardo, who is accustomed to wielding his veto power — having vetoed a record 75 bills in the 2023 session.
Ahead of the governor’s address, the Nevada State Democratic Party launched an ad titled “Expensive,” accusing Lombardo of raising costs for families due to his 2023 vetoes. The party pointed to housing bills that would have capped rent increases for seniors and would have established a new summary eviction procedure for tenants, as well as bills that would have guaranteed school meals to public school students and lowered the price of Medicare-negotiated prescription drugs.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Contact Jessica Hill at jehill@reviewjournal.com and McKenna Ross at mross@reviewjournal.com. Follow @jess_hillyeah and @mckenna_ross_ on X.
None of the Mountain West Conference games are going to be easy and Air Force proved that to Nevada on Tuesday night.
The Falcons took Nevada to the wire before the Pack recovered and came away with a 68-62 win in front of 7,430 fans at Lawlor Events Center on Tuesday.
Tre Coleman led Nevada with 18 points and nine rebounds and Kobe Sanders had 11 points as the Wolf Pack improved to 2-0 in the Mountain West, 10-7 overall. Coleman also had four assists and Sanders had five.
The six-point margin at the end was Nevada’s largest lead of the game.
Next, Nevada hosts San Jose State, at 3 p.m. Saturday. The Spartans upset New Mexico, 71-70, on Tuesday.
There were 10 lead changes and seven ties. Air Force led, 60-59, with 3 minutes, 21 seconds left.
Kobe Sanders hit a bucket to give Nevada a 61-60 lead with 2:36 remaining, then Daniel Foster hit a 3-pointer to give the Pack some breathing room.
Ethan Taylor led the Falcons (3-14, 0-6) with 22 points and Kyle Marshall added 12.
Nevada coach Steve Alford said he liked his team’s fight. saying they won the last four minutes of the first half, 12-4 and the last four minutes of the second half, 12-2.
Nevada was dismal from the free throw line, connecting on 10-of-23. including four straight in the final minute.
The Pack missed the front end of four free throws, which Alford said actually made them 10-of-27 from the stripe.
“If we make our foul shots, then this game is a different look,” Alford said. “It’s really an odd deal because we started out the year so well (on free throws) and now we’ve got to be one of the worst fouls shooting teams in the league. It was an ugly game because of our foul shooting.”
Nevada had 30 points in the paint, to 18 for the Falcons.
Nick Davidson was 0-for-5 from the free throw line and he stayed well after the game Tuesday night shooting free throw after free throw. He had nine points and four assists in the game.
Air Force hit 10-of-27 from 3-point rahge and Nevad awas 6-of-014 from the arc.
Foster started and played 29 minutes, scoring five points on 2-of-4 from the field.
Alford said Foster does what the coaches want him to do.
“Daniel has a incredibly competitive mind. He wants to win and he knows he can influence wins without scoring. He guards like crazy. He rebounds. He gets loose balls,” Alford said. “And now we’re asking him to play some point (guard) to help Kobe out.”
Air Force led 35-33 at the break after the Wolf Pack tied it at 33 . The Pack trailed by 11 (31-20) with 5:06 left in the half.
Nevada made just 2-of-8 free throws in the first half, including three misses on front ends of one-and-ones. The Pack was 3-of-9 from the arc. Air Force made 5-of-6 free throws and 6-of-12 from 3-pont range.
Nevada leads the overall series with Air Force 18-3 and has won five straight in the series.
San Jose State plays Nevada at Lawlor Events Center at 3 p.m. Saturday.
The Spartans (9-10, 2-5) beat New Mexico 71-70 on Tuesday night.
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