RENO, Nevada – The bitter primaries that saw nearly a dozen Republican Senate candidates defeat retired Army Captain Sam Brown are fading from view among some who say their quest to unseat the incumbent Democratic senator. Jacky Rosen trumps any intra-party grievances of the past 11 months.
Not runner-up Jeff Gunter.
“The America First faithful had no interest in campaigning with him throughout the primary season, where he relied on establishment influence and money to get the nomination,” Gunter said Wednesday after his distant second-place finish .
The Trump-appointed dermatologist and former ambassador to Iceland continued to attack Brown as the establishment candidate in a lengthy statement in which he openly predicted that Rosen would to win another term in November.
Gunter’s criticisms could complicate the Republican Party’s early efforts to coalesce around Brown. And it comes as the state Republican Party tries to overcome intraparty differences in the primaries to turn into what is expected to be one of the most closely watched Senate races of the year.
Gunter said former President Donald Trump’s late endorsement of Brown, which came in a social media post hours after he appeared in Nevada ahead of the primary, would not be enough to convince loyal Republicans to support the nominee, who has avoided debates. and did not engage with the candidate. 11 other candidates in the race.
“The base is smart and they don’t forget and I think he has a lot to prove before he wins their support,” Gunter said.
One of Gunter’s most prominent supporters, Sigal Chattah, a Republican national committeewoman in Nevada, struck a different tone. She said Wednesday that a historic precedent in which Nevada Republicans depreciate in Republican nominees they don’t like “died last night.”
“Any attempt to marginalize the elected candidate will be met with strong dissent from the party,” Chattah said.
For months, Brown faced criticism from within his own party, who castigated him for skipping debates, changing his stance on the status of mothballs. Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, and called him a candidate hand-picked by national Republicans like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Brown’s absence became more of an issue than any policy in the primary debates, with candidates explicitly urging voters not to vote for Brown.
Some of that criticism echoed Brown’s own messages from two years ago, when he ran in the Republican primary against Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, who won dozens of high-profile endorsements. Laxalt defeated Brown in the primary, but then lost to Democratic U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto by 8,000 votes, clinching the Senate majority for the Democrats.
Chattah had previously criticized Brown for a “lack of integrity” and pointed to a CNN report that Brown created a political action committee to help other Republicans and then funneled the money to pay for his unsuccessful 2022 campaign. She said in an interview that her mission now is to defeat Rosen and discouraged other Republicans from attacking Brown in the future.
“I don’t do returns. So that was my feeling,” she said when asked about the report. “Regardless of my feelings, I am the RNC committeewoman and I am a Republican. And I will unequivocally support the Republican candidate.”
Brown did not recognize his opponents in his victory speech on tuesday and instead focused his attention on Rosen and President Joe Biden.
Brown’s campaign did so again in a statement Wednesday when asked about Gunter’s comments.
“Nevada voters are clearly united in our grassroots campaign to end the Biden-Rosen American nightmare. And that’s what we’re 100% focused on,” said director of communications Kristy Wilkinson.
Trump’s support for Brown, two days before the primaries, was a blow to many opponents who wanted to align themselves with the former president, but none more so than Gunter, who called himself “110% pro-Trump”.
In a Monday post on
Trump campaign adviser Chris LaCivita directly addressed Gunter in his response, saying, “You have a habit of making up crap. President Trump makes his own decisions and this is another example of how he chooses wisely.”
Among Brown’s opponents and detractors was former lieutenant governor candidate and Air Force veteran Tony Grady, who campaigned for Brown during his insurgent 2022 campaign. before running against him this cycle. More recently, Grady called Brown a “fake politician.”
Grady said he saw Brown “among the people” more in 2022 than in his 2024 campaign, and that skipping debates was not “necessarily putting your best foot forward.”
“But the reality is he had a plan to run his campaign and he was successful,” said Grady, who supported Brown immediately after his defeat and said Brown should have the votes of his supporters moving forward. “At this point, it doesn’t really matter what I think about him skipping the debates. He was successful in winning the primaries.
