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Lying in an Afghan desert, engulfed in flames and soaked in diesel gas, Sam Brown realized he was about to die.
It was September 2008, and Mr. Brown, who was a U.S. Army lieutenant on the time, had been main his platoon to the help of fellow troopers who had been ambushed by the Taliban. Then, his Humvee struck a roadside bomb. In an explosion of fireside and concussive sound, Mr. Brown’s life was without end modified.
“I keep in mind laying there, facedown within the grime within the Kandahar desert, attempting to scoop grime over myself to smother the flames and having no success, and pondering to myself: How lengthy will it take to burn to demise? What occurs as I die?” Mr. Brown recalled in an interview with The New York Times. “And then actually making the choice to surrender the need to reside.”
But he survived. A fellow soldier, additionally injured within the blast, saved Mr. Brown, and his platoon supplied first help till he could possibly be evacuated to a hospital. At a burn unit in Texas, he underwent greater than 30 surgical procedures over a three-year restoration, and he was left completely scarred.
Now, Mr. Brown, 40, who medically retired as a captain, is the main Republican in search of to problem Senator Jacky Rosen, a Democrat, in what is anticipated to be probably the most aggressive Senate races this cycle, with the potential to find out management of the chamber. At marketing campaign stops, Mr. Brown doesn’t dwell on his dramatic historical past, focusing as an alternative on inflation, which many Nevadans have felt acutely, and on the border. But his expertise is a central a part of his appeals to supporters as he works to lift the form of cash wanted to run a statewide marketing campaign towards a well-funded incumbent.
His emails often comprise traces like “God is actual. I nearly met Him” and “They blew up my physique, however they’ll by no means destroy my spirit.” He has in contrast headlines about President Biden’s “fiery” demeanor together with his personal burn scars. “You need to see fiery, Friend? I’m actually fiery,” learn one e-mail, which included a photograph of his scarred face. “I’ll stand within the fireplace. I’ll take the flames.”
And Mr. Brown was impressed to run for workplace, he mentioned, as a result of he needed to assist individuals struggling by means of their lowest moments, the identical manner {that a} comrade had saved him in Afghanistan.
“I see loads of hopelessness in our nation proper now,” he mentioned, “and I’m coming into this Senate race with a perspective of, I’ve been the recipient and a blessing of somebody coming to my help after I wanted it most.”
Mr. Brown, who fell quick within the 2022 Republican major for Senate in Nevada and has by no means held elected workplace, might face a formidable opponent in Ms. Rosen. Her marketing campaign plans to emphasise her bipartisan popularity whereas arguing that Mr. Brown’s comparatively quick time within the state — he moved from Dallas to Reno in 2018 — and the assorted start-up, nonprofit and consulting jobs he has held over the previous 12 years, since leaving the army, don’t make him finest suited to assist Nevadans.
Democrats are significantly keen to spotlight Mr. Brown’s previous opposition to abortion, and his current makes an attempt to melt his stance. (A measure enshrining abortion entry within the state’s Constitution is anticipated to be on the poll in November, and Democrats nationally have been energized in current elections by the political efficiency of the problem.)
Still, Mr. Brown could also be sidestepping a number of the pitfalls of different current nominees who have been perceived as too excessive for the final Nevada citizens by avoiding a bruising major struggle, mentioned Amy Tarkanian, the previous chairwoman of Nevada’s Republican Party.
With a giant monetary and polling edge — surveys present him up double-digits within the major on June 11 — Mr. Brown skipped a debate together with his rivals. Though he has attended some neighborhood occasions, he has not been particularly ubiquitous on the marketing campaign path. In February, he acknowledged to visitors at a Nevada Republican Club lunch in Las Vegas that he has held comparatively few marketing campaign occasions within the state as he traverses the nation elevating cash. (His marketing campaign, which raised $2.4 million within the final quarter, has set a purpose of elevating $20 million total.)
What Mr. Brown has achieved is figure to attraction to independents who might sway the final election, slightly than solely to conservative voters, partially by shifting his rhetoric on abortion. He has additionally averted tying himself too intently to former President Donald J. Trump, although he has been extra vocal about his reward for Mr. Trump in current months.
“I discover it refreshing when you might have a Republican who’s keen to dig their heels in and say, ‘No, that is what I consider. I’m not going to cave to the far-right noise,’” Ms. Tarkanian mentioned.
His major rivals — and Ms. Rosen’s marketing campaign — have been much less impressed. Mr. Brown waited to endorse Mr. Trump till January, a delay that didn’t go unnoticed on the appropriate.
“He barely even says President Trump’s identify,” mentioned Jeff Gunter, a major candidate who was the ambassador to Iceland below Mr. Trump. “That’s a part of the rip-off — making voters suppose he’s someway supportive of the president, and he’s actually, actually not.”
Mr. Brown has just lately been extra outspoken about his assist for Mr. Trump and his personal conservative bona fides, showing on tv networks like OAN and Newsmax, and on the podcast of Wayne Allyn Root, a right-wing conspiracy theorist. “President Trump’s insurance policies very clearly, in my opinion, had Americans in a significantly better spot than they’re right this moment,” Mr. Brown mentioned. At a marketing campaign occasion in Reno on Saturday, he instructed reporters that he was “extraordinarily conservative.”
Mr. Trump has not made an endorsement within the race, however he has shared a number of pictures on his social media web site, Truth Social, that appear to point his enthusiasm for Mr. Brown. “Democrats are scared of a united Trump-Brown ticket in Nevada!” one publish learn. (Nevada’s governor, Joe Lombardo, a Republican, has endorsed Mr. Brown.)
On abortion, Democrats say that no quantity of moderating language will persuade voters that his views have actually modified.
“Sam Brown’s file reveals he’s pushing an excessive MAGA agenda that may damage hardworking Nevadans,” mentioned Johanna Warshaw, a spokeswoman for Ms. Rosen’s marketing campaign.
During a run for the Texas Legislature in 2014, whereas residing in Dallas, Mr. Brown endorsed a 20-week abortion ban with no exceptions for rape or incest, and prior to now he has declined to say whether or not he would assist a nationwide ban on the process. After his first Senate run, he served briefly because the chairman of Nevada’s chapter of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, a conservative Christian group that’s vocally against abortion.
More just lately, he has sought to make clear his stance. In an interview with NBC News in February, his spouse, Amy Brown, recounted her personal troublesome and emotional choice to get an abortion when she was 24 and amid an unplanned being pregnant. In that interview, Mr. Brown mentioned he wouldn’t assist a nationwide ban, agreed with Nevada’s present legislation permitting abortions till 24 weeks of being pregnant and supported exceptions for rape, incest and the lifetime of the mom.
In the interview with The Times, he reiterated that place, whereas saying that he believed abortion must be left to the states — a stance Mr. Trump has additionally embraced.
“I can not do something to alter Nevada’s legal guidelines, nor do I search to alter Nevada’s legal guidelines,” Mr. Brown mentioned, including, “I might not assist a federal abortion ban.”
Some Republicans prompt that Mr. Brown nonetheless wants to make sure that voters know his place on this and different points — not simply his life story.
“As persons are assembly with him or listening to him current at conferences, they’re discovering that there must be extra than simply the army story,” Ms. Tarkanian mentioned. “And he’s been in Nevada lengthy sufficient now simply to run in a second election, whereas Jacky Rosen has been in Nevada for, I believe, over 40 years.”
Mr. Brown’s marketing campaign argued that he had detailed his stance on quite a lot of points — together with these as esoteric as cryptocurrency — and has substantive expertise past his army background, pointing to his enterprise diploma and his time operating a pharmacy profit manager, an organization that helped veterans get their medicines.
The marketing campaign hopes to make the race a referendum on Ms. Rosen, arguing that she has achieved little to assist Nevadans scuffling with excessive gasoline costs and housing prices.
Still, his success could finally hinge on whether or not his private story resonates with voters. Mr. Brown “has the flexibility to drive one message that each voter will know come Election Day,” mentioned Jeremy Hughes, a Nevada Republican political strategist. “Whether voters’ singular understanding of the sacrifice of Sam Brown’s army service is sufficient to win him the race would be the open query.”
