Trump-backed candidate Sam Brown soared to victory Tuesday night in the Nevada Republican primary senatorial race.
Brown, who had served in Afghanistan, was endorsed by former President Donald Trump on Sunday and received 58,395 votes, or 56.9 percent, according to the Associated Press (AP).
Other candidates such as Jeff Gunter, the former United States Ambassador to Iceland during Trump’s administration, received 16,713 votes, or 16.3 percent, while former Nevada State Rep. Jim Marchant (R) received 6,923 votes, or 6.7 percent.
“Congratulations to Captain Sam Brown on his resounding primary victory,” National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Steve Daines said in a statement. “A graduate of West Point, Sam is an American hero who is once again answering the call to serve our country. Sam’s support for securing our border and getting inflation under control stands in strong contrast to his opponent’s record of rubber-stamping Joe Biden’s disastrous policies.”
In Trump’s Truth Social post on Sunday, he described Brown as being a “FEARLESS AMERICAN PATRIOT” and a “Purple Heart Recipient, who has proven he has the ‘PURE GRIT’ and COURAGE to take on our ENEMIES, both Foreign and Domestic.”
Gunter lashed out in response to Trump’s endorsement of Brown, describing it as being a pay-to-play scheme. When Gunter was younger, he had appeared in late-night infomercials in which he pushed an anti-wrinkle skin serum product. One man alleged in a lawsuit that it had resulted in him being infected with a disease.
While serving in Afghanistan, Brown sustained injuries as a result of an improvised explosive device (IED) going off. The explosion resulted in one of the men from his platoon being killed and three others hurt. Brown ended up with very serious burns over his body as a result of the IED explosion.
In an interview with Breitbart News, Brown explained that after he had been injured, he was “medevacked back to San Antonio to the Brooke Army Medical Center.”
“At the time, I was– I still believed for months that I was going to be able to recover. I thought, ‘oh, hey, Doc, patch me up, get me better, send me back to my guys.’ It took me months to really reconcile just how bad off I really was. It turned into a three-year recovery instead of just what I was hoping would be a couple of months.”
On the Democratic Party side, Jacky Rosen, a first-term senator, received 105,833 votes, or 92.4 percent of the vote, while her opponent Troy Walker received 3,620 votes, or 3.2 percent. “None of these candidates” received 2,590 votes, or 2.3 percent, while Mike Schaefer received 2,470 votes, or 2.2 percent of the vote.
Brown will take on Rosen in the general election in November.