People who were close to former President Donald Trump are now split because of the increasingly nasty Republican Senate primary in Nevada.
Expected to be one of the closest races in the county, Trump’s race against Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen is one of the few where the National Republican Senatorial Committee is not publicly on Trump’s side.
The head of the NRSC, Sen. Steve Daines, asked former Army captain Sam Brown to run in November. Brown was badly hurt by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan. Two people who were there say that Brown met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort last week to ask for his support.
There are a lot of Trump supporters who don’t like Brown. Instead, they are quietly telling the former president to back Dr. Jeffrey Gunter, who used to be his ambassador to Iceland.
It’s not clear if Trump will back anyone in this race. Jim Marchant, a former state assemblyman who spread false claims about election fraud, is also running for the ticket.
Last weekend, a gathering for Gunter was held in Nevada by Rep. Matt Gaetz from Florida. On social media, far-right activists and regulars at Mar-a-Lago Laura Loomer and Roger Stone have criticized Brown for his ties to more moderate Republicans.
Brown went door-to-door for Trump in 2020, but he seemed to move away from the former president afterward. In an August interview with Punchbowl News, he refused to say if he would be “comfortable with sharing the GOP ticket with Trump in Nevada.” In the end, he backed Trump before the Iowa votes.
Another sign of more widespread support is that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell went to a Brown dinner last year.
Sources told CNN that Brown’s critics told Trump all of this information in order to stop any possible support.
A source familiar with the interactions says that negative stories about Gunter have also been sent to the former president. These include claims that he was registered to vote as a Democrat in California and a 2021 State Department inspector general report that cast doubt on his time as ambassador.
Two people who were in on the talks say that national Republicans told Gunter not to run for the Senate primary.
People who know Gunter and Brown both said that Trump’s top campaign staff were on their side and that they thought the former president might support their candidate.
