Lying in an Afghan desert, engulfed in flames and soaked in diesel gasoline, Sam Brown realized he was about to die.
It was September 2008, and Mr. Brown, a U.S. Army captain, had been main his platoon to assistance from fellow troopers who had been ambushed by the Taliban. Then, his Humvee struck a roadside bomb. In an explosion of fireplace and concussive sound, Mr. Brown’s life was eternally modified.
“I remember laying there, facedown in the dirt in the Kandahar desert, trying to scoop dirt over myself to smother the flames and having no success, and thinking to myself: How long will it take to burn to death? What happens as I die?” Mr. Brown recalled in an interview with The New York Times. “And then literally making the decision to give up the will to live.”
But he survived. A fellow soldier, additionally injured within the blast, saved Mr. Brown, and his platoon offered first help till he may very well 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, is the main Republican searching for 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 boost the form of cash wanted to run a statewide marketing campaign in opposition to a well-funded incumbent.
His emails often comprise strains like “God is real. I almost met Him” and “They blew up my body, but they’ll never destroy my spirit.” He has in contrast headlines about President Biden’s “fiery” demeanor together with his personal burn scars. “You want to see fiery, Friend? I’m literally fiery,” learn one e mail, which included a photograph of his scarred face. “I will stand in the fire. I will take the flames.”
And Mr. Brown was impressed to run for workplace, he stated, as a result of he wished to assist folks struggling by their lowest moments, the identical manner {that a} comrade had saved him in Afghanistan.
“I see a lot of hopelessness in our country right now,” he stated, “and I’m coming into this Senate race with a perspective of, I’ve been the recipient and a blessing of someone coming to my aid when I needed it most.”
Mr. Brown, who fell quick within the 2022 Republican main for Senate in Nevada and has by no means held elected workplace, may 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 varied 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 notably 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 among the pitfalls of different current nominees who had been perceived as too excessive for the overall Nevada citizens by avoiding a bruising main battle, stated Amy Tarkanian, the previous chairwoman of Nevada’s Republican Party.
With an enormous monetary and polling edge — surveys present him up double-digits within the main 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 aim of elevating $20 million total.)
What Mr. Brown has achieved is figure to attraction to independents who may sway the overall election, relatively than solely to conservative voters, partly by shifting his rhetoric on abortion. He has additionally prevented tying himself too carefully to former President Donald J. Trump, although he has been extra vocal about his reward for Mr. Trump in current months.
“I find it refreshing when you have a Republican who’s willing to dig their heels in and say, ‘No, this is what I believe. I’m not going to cave to the far-right noise,’” Ms. Tarkanian stated.
His main 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 name,” stated Jeff Gunter, a main candidate who was the ambassador to Iceland beneath Mr. Trump. “That’s part of the scam — making voters think he’s somehow supportive of the president, and he’s really, really not.”
Mr. Brown has lately been extra outspoken about his help 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 policies very clearly, in my view, had Americans in a much better spot than they are today,” Mr. Brown stated. At a marketing campaign occasion in Reno on Saturday, he informed reporters that he was “extremely 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 terrified of a united Trump-Brown ticket in Nevada!” one submit 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 record shows he is pushing an extreme MAGA agenda that would hurt hardworking Nevadans,” stated 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 help 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 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 resolution to get an abortion when she was 24 and amid an unplanned being pregnant. In that interview, Mr. Brown stated he wouldn’t help a nationwide ban, agreed with Nevada’s present regulation 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 ought to be left to the states — a stance Mr. Trump has additionally embraced.
“I cannot do anything to change Nevada’s laws, nor do I seek to change Nevada’s laws,” Mr. Brown stated, including, “I would not support a federal abortion ban.”
Some Republicans urged that Mr. Brown nonetheless wants to make sure that voters know his place on this and different points — not simply his life story.
“As people are meeting with him or listening to him present at meetings, they’re finding that there needs to be more than just the military story,” Ms. Tarkanian stated. “And he’s been in Nevada long enough now just to run in a second election, whereas Jacky Rosen has been in Nevada for, I think, over 40 years.”
Mr. Brown’s marketing campaign argued that he had detailed his stance on a wide range 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 working a pharmacy profit supervisor, an organization that helped veterans get their drugs.
The marketing campaign hopes to make the race a referendum on Ms. Rosen, arguing that she has achieved little to assist Nevadans fighting excessive gasoline costs and housing prices.
Still, his success might finally hinge on whether or not his private story resonates with voters. Mr. Brown “has the ability to drive one message that every voter will know come Election Day,” stated Jeremy Hughes, a Nevada Republican political strategist. “Whether voters’ singular understanding of the sacrifice of Sam Brown’s military service is enough to win him the race will be the open question.”