Key GOP leaders in Washington, including National Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), recruited Brown. Trump was facing pressure from Gunter’s allies, including some of their shared donors, to back the former ambassador. But many Republican leaders viewed Brown as the strongest challenger against Rosen because of his compelling personal story as a Purple Heart recipient who was severely burned when a roadside bomb detonated under his vehicle during a mission in Afghanistan — leading to a long and painful recovery that inspired him to enter public life.
The former president was expected to give Brown his backing earlier Sunday at a rally in Las Vegas, but stopped short of doing so at the rally, which both Brown and Gunter planned to attend. Late Sunday night, Trump posted that Brown is a “FEARLESS AMERICAN PATRIOT” who has “proven he has the ‘PURE GRIT’ and COURAGE to take on our Enemies, both Foreign and Domestic.”
“I have gotten to know Sam and his beautiful wife, Amy, a U.S. Army First Lieutenant, and I know in this next chapter of their Life of Service together, they will continue to make us all proud,” Trump wrote. “Sam has already proven his Love for our Country, being horrifically wounded, and making the Comeback of a Lifetime.”
In a statement, Brown said he was honored to have Trump’s endorsement and that they would work toward “delivering a better future for every Nevadan.”
“I look forward to helping President Trump pass the America First agenda in the U.S. Senate after we both win in November,” Brown said in his statement. “Our message to every American is clear: relief from the Biden-Rosen American Nightmare will soon be here and the hope of the American Dream will be restored!”
Brown ran for Senate in 2022, but lost his bid for the GOP nomination to former Nevada attorney general Adam Laxalt. Laxalt was narrowly defeated by Nevada’s senior Democrat, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, in one of the most hotly contested races in the country.
Gunter, who is independently wealthy, has been able to self-fund ads for his campaign while casting Brown as a pawn of the D.C. establishment. One of his first ads introduced Gunter as “Trump’s ambassador” and states that he is “110% pro-Trump.”
Jim Marchant, a former state assembly member who championed Trump’s falsehoods about the 2020 election when he unsuccessfully ran for secretary of state in 2022, is also running in the June 11 GOP primary to challenge Rosen.
Democrats have attempted to cast Brown as an extreme Republican, accusing him of shifting his position on key issues like abortion to win in Nevada. Brown has adopted a more moderate position on abortion than some other Republican candidates this cycle, stating he would not support a national abortion ban — a stance Trump has also adopted. Brown has said he will support Nevada’s law permitting abortion up to 24 weeks and says abortion restrictions should be determined state-by-state.
But Democrats have relentlessly pointed out that Brown previously backed a 20-week ban on abortion while living in Texas and that he has opposed exceptions for rape and incest in the past.
“Donald Trump just endorsed my extreme MAGA opponent, Sam Brown. His agenda of banning abortion, gutting health care, and slashing Social Security is wrong for Nevada,” Rosen wrote on X Sunday night. “We’re going to defeat MAGA extremism in November.”
