Republicans fell just short of flipping the Nevada Senate seat last cycle, which was the closest race in the country as Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto defeated GOP nominee Adam Laxalt by less than 8,000 votes.

Another Silver State seat, this time held by Sen. Jacky Rosen, is on national Republicans’ target list again in 2024. After neighboring Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s break from the Democratic Party, Rosen is now the only first-term Democratic senator up for reelection in a competitive state. In 2018, Democrats were aided by a strong wave year but had a difficult Senate map that saw them defending red states like North Dakota, Indiana and Missouri — Rosen was the only Democrat to defeat a GOP incumbent, Sen. Dean Heller.

Operatives in Washington have signaled they will back Sam Brown, a wounded Afghanistan veteran who was awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star, as their favored candidate to take on Rosen, as they’ve pledged to take a more aggressive role in recruiting and supporting candidates this cycle. Brown ran in 2022 in the GOP primary

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