Trump held off on endorsing Brown until Sunday night, hours after he held a rally in Las Vegas.
In Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District, seven Republicans are vying to take on Rep. Susie Lee (D-Nev.) in her Democratic-leaning seat.
The down-ballot primaries are key to the fights for the Senate and House majorities, but they are also playing out in a state that is important to the November rematch between Trump and President Biden. Trump narrowly lost Nevada in 2016 and 2020.
Nevada was home to one of the closest Senate races in the country in 2020. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) defeated her Republican challenger, former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, by fewer than 8,000 votes.
Brown, who ran against Laxalt in the 2020 GOP primary for Senate, highlighted his military service in his latest bid, including the story of the roadside bomb he survived in 2008 in Afghanistan. And he sought to get ahead of Democratic attacks on abortion, sharing his wife’s experience of having an abortion shortly before they met one another.
Gunter played up his service in the Trump administration, touting himself as “110% pro-Trump” and attacking Brown as a tool of the Republican establishment.
Until Sunday night, the Nevada race stood out as the rare battleground primary where Trump had not aligned with the National Republican Senatorial Committee. His endorsement of Brown came at about 10 p.m. Sunday on his Truth Social platform, after the Las Vegas rally in which he called Brown a “good man” but did not explicitly back him.
In backing Brown, Trump also passed over another primary candidate, Jim Marchant, who has cast himself as a loyalist of the former president. Marchant unsuccessfully ran for Nevada secretary of state in 2022, repeating Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.
Gunter on Monday suggested a “big check … from the swamp” was behind Trump’s late endorsement of Brown. Top Trump adviser Chris LaCivita rebuked Gunter in a social media post, saying Trump “makes his own decisions and this is another example of him choosing wisely.”
Brown raised $7.1 million through May 22, according to records with the Federal Election Commission. Gunter has largely self-funded his campaign, loaning himself $2.7 million as of May 22.
Rosen has set her sights on Brown, unveiling an ad last month that criticized Brown as “another MAGA extremist trying to take away abortion rights.”
In Lee’s district, the more prominent GOP candidates include Marty O’Donnell, a music composer who has the endorsement of Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo (R). The other primary contenders include Dan Schwartz, Nevada’s former state treasurer, and Elizabeth Helgelien, a former Nevada state senator.
O’Donnell and Schwartz self-funded most of their runs, leading the other candidates in campaign receipts through May 22, according to FEC records. Schwartz had loaned his campaign $900,000 as of May 22, while O’Donnell had loaned his campaign $500,000.
Lee’s 3rd Congressional District, which spreads from Las Vegas to Nevada’s southwestern border with California, is considered the most competitive congressional district this November in the state. The Cook Political Report has classified the race as “Lean Democrat.”
One other Nevada GOP primary that has drawn Trump’s attention is in the 4th Congressional District, held by Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.), chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. Trump endorsed one of the three GOP candidates for the seat, former North Las Vegas mayor John Lee.
