Sam Brown ramps up national fundraising ahead of GOP Senate primary
Republican candidate Sam Brown, the front-runner to take on Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) in November, has been accused by lower-polling opponents of being absent from the campaign trail.
So what has Brown been up to?
He’s been raising money, and a lot of it, with the help of numerous high-profile Republicans around the country, according to a copy of his national fundraising schedule obtained by The Nevada Independent.
His schedule, which catalogs fundraisers from Feb. 20 through April 16, includes eight fundraisers outside of Nevada and three events in Reno. The fundraising list is littered with prominent Republicans — Sens. John Thune (R-SD) in Washington, D.C., and Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) in Oklahoma City and Tulsa; former Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) in Phoenix and Atlanta, respectively; and an event hosted by two executives in Dallas. The Phoenix event was also hosted by Karrin Taylor Robson, an Arizona Republican who ran for governor in 2022 but lost the primary to Trump’s preferred candidate, Kari Lake.
Brown also held two fundraisers in California in late February.
The support of governors and senators underscores the national Republican apparatus’ belief in Brown’s potential to beat Rosen. Last cycle, former Attorney General Adam Laxalt lost to Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) by less than 1 percentage point.
His national fundraising also speaks to the difference between being an insurgent and being the Washington-backed front-runner. Brown proved to be a strong grassroots fundraiser in 2022, a label he invokes often on the campaign trail.
While 44 percent of his $3 million haul through the end of 2023 were from donations of $200 or less, Brown now has better access to large-dollar donors. Rosen’s $11 million in funds raised by the end of 2023, by comparison, was composed of about 31 percent small-dollar donations.
Editor’s note: This story appears in Indy Elections, The Nevada Independent’s newsletter dedicated to comprehensive coverage of the 2024 elections. Sign up for the newsletter here.