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EXCLUSIVE: First-time candidate and Army veteran Sam Brown says his latest fundraising figures show that his grassroots-powered bid for the Senate in the battleground state of Nevada is “here to stay.”
Brown hauled in over $1.05 million during the October-through-December fourth quarter of fundraising in 2021, according to campaign cash figures shared first with Fox News on Tuesday. It’s the second straight quarter that Brown has hauled in just over $1 million.
The Brown campaign said that the contributions came from over 15,000 donors the past three months, up from contributions from 12,000 during the previous quarter. It predicts that Brown’s on track to bring in $4 million by Nevada’s June 14 primary, and it touts that it’s preparing to make a major ad buy in the coming weeks to run commercials on broadcast TV. Brown’s team didn’t share the campaign’s cash on hand as of the end of December.
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“Last quarter, we showed America that we had started a movement for new conservative leadership,” Brown told Fox News in a statement.
“Now, we have shown that this movement is here to stay,” he emphasized. “We are the only Nevada Senate campaign of either party with this type of massive grassroots following. We aren’t funded by the Washington political class or PACs seeking a coronation. Thousands of patriots in Nevada and across America have rallied and donated to our campaign because they want new grassroots leadership that is accountable to the people.”‘
File photo of first-time candidate and retired Army Capt. Sam Brown, an Afghanistan war veteran who’s running for the Republican Senate nomination in Nevada. (Sam Brown)
Brown, a newcomer to politics, is a retired Army captain. He’s a Purple Heart recipient who sustained serious injuries from an IED explosion during a 2008 deployment in Afghanistan, which left his face severely burned.
Brown’s fundraising haul will once again raise eyebrows in a GOP primary race where former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt grabbed the spotlight when he announced his candidacy for the Senate in mid-August. Laxalt, an Iraq War veteran and grandson of the late Nevada governor and senator Paul Laxalt, has plenty of name recognition.
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While Brown’s a supporter of former President Trump, Laxalt – who’s a Trump ally – has been endorsed by the former president, who remains very popular and influential among Republicans in the Silver State and across the country. He also enjoys the backing of such other top Republicans as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, as well as numerous Nevada GOP leaders.
Former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt speaks at his sixth annual Basque Fry, Aug. 14, 2021, in Gardnerville, Nevada. (FOX News)
Laxalt hauled in $1.4 million during the six weeks from his campaign launch through the end of the third quarter. He’s yet to announce his fundraising for the past three months.
Republicans need a net gain of just one seat in next year’s midterms to recapture the Senate majority they lost when they were swept in January’s twin Senate runoff elections. The GOP’s playing plenty of defense – it’s defending 20 of the 34 seats up for grabs in 2022, including defending five open seats, with two of them in the key battlegrounds of North Carolina and Pennsylvania. But they also see strong pickup potentials in the swing states of Arizona, Georgia, New Hampshire and Nevada, where Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto is running for a second term.
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., listens during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing, July 27, 2021. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
But beating Cortez Masto in the key western battleground state won’t be easy. The senator, who chaired the Senate Democrats’ reelection arm last cycle, hauled in $3.3 million the last three months and had a robust $10.4 million in her campaign coffers at the beginning of the year, which her team said was a Nevada record.
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Cortez Masto, a former two-term Nevada attorney general, defeated Republican Joe Heck by two and a half points in the 2016 race to succeed retiring longtime Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid. She made history as the first Latina elected to the Senate.