Sam Brown makes push in Las Vegas for GOP to take Senate

Nevada Republican U.S. Senate candidate Sam Brown likened his race against Democratic incumbent Jacky Rosen to “modern-day campaign trench warfare.” 

The comparison came during the retired U.S. Army captain’s campaign event today with conservative commentator Ben Shapiro at South Point, where they discussed the race, Brown’s journey to candidacy and his vision for a Republican-led Senate. 

Brown acknowledged he was trailing Rosen in polling, with Emerson College Polling’s latest results showing Rosen comfortably ahead by 10 percentage points. 

“Jacky Rosen has got her side kind of dug in, they’re not going to budge,” Brown said to a crowd of about 100 people. “Thank God we’ve got our side dug in, and you guys aren’t budging either.”

Brown’s appearance was on his 16th “Alive Day” — a term he uses to describe the anniversary of a near-death experience in combat. A roadside bomb detonated under his vehicle’s fuel tank and left about 30% of his body scarred while he served in Afghanistan. 

“I was conditioned to be ready for this moment, even though I couldn’t have imagined that’s what it would be 16 years ago today,” Brown said of the Senate race.

Brown’s candidacy is part of a push by Republicans to regain voting control of the U.S. Senate, where there are 51 Democrats (including four independents) and 49 Republicans. Nationally, there are 34 Senate seats on the November ballot, including 23 held by Democrats or independents.

Brown said he’d spend his initial days in office working to confirm people into important presidential Cabinet positions and ensuring there was a “clean sweep” of President Joe Biden’s administration executives.

“This race is so important because if we win it, we will take the Senate majority,” Brown said. “But can you imagine a scenario where, if President (Donald) Trump wins but the Democrats find a way to keep the Senate majority — will he get anything done? And it starts with those confirmations right there on Day One.” 

Brown repeatedly showed his loyalty to Trump, including defending him for taking photos in an unauthorized section of Arlington National Cemetery last week during a wreath-laying ceremony to honor service members killed in the Afghanistan War withdrawal. The Trump campaign was warned ahead of time about not taking photographs in Section 60, the burial site for military personnel killed while fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Trump only mentioned one candidate during his speech at the Republican National Convention. That candidate: the veteran Brown.

“As he’s standing on the stage giving his first speech after being shot in Pennsylvania, he only mentioned one current candidate,” Brown said. “He mentioned me and he said how much he appreciated my service, my sacrifice.”

The event today was during the first day of the Republican Jewish Coalition Annual Leadership Summit in Las Vegas. 

Brown criticized Rosen’s approach to Israel and the ongoing war in Gaza, saying she isn’t enough of an ally and that he would be a bigger advocate for the Jewish state.

Rosen, who served as president of Congregation Ner Tamid from 2013 to 2016, has been outspoken in support of Israel, asking colleagues to support unconditional aid for Israel during a speech on the Senate floor last December. 

In May, she led a bipartisan letter with Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., urging Biden “to forcefully counter” the United Nations’ International Criminal Court (ICC). 

The letter came as the ICC was considering issuing a request for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant “for war crimes and crimes against humanity” for action taken against Palestine.

Katharine Kurz, the spokesperson for the Nevada State Democratic Party, said Shapiro was a “controversial and offensive right-wing extremist ... who wants to jail abortion providers and called Social Security a ‘Ponzi scheme.'”

Brown “continues to find new ways to remind Nevadans that he’s just too MAGA to represent our state,” she said of his decision to have an event with Shapiro.