Republican Jim Marchant, a vocal supporter of former president Donald Trump and an election denier who lost a race to become Nevada’s secretary of state last year, has launched a bid for the U.S. Senate from a state that will be key to determining control of the chamber next year.
Marchant is seeking to topple Sen. Jacky Rosen (D), a moderate serving her first term in the swing state. Marchant, who describes himself as a “MAGA conservative” — a reference to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan — is the first major Republican to enter the race.
“There’s nothing more precious than our freedom and personal liberty,” Marchant said during an event Tuesday at a suburban Las Vegas church. “I’m running for United States Senate to protect Nevadans from the overbearing government, from Silicon Valley, from big media, from labor unions, from the radical gender-change advocates, where Jacky Rosen has failed you.”
Rosen welcomed Marchant to the race with a statement on Twitter.
“Nevadans deserve a Senator who will fight for them, not a MAGA election denier who opposes abortion rights even in cases of rape and incest,” she wrote. “While far-right politicians like Jim Marchant spread baseless conspiracy theories, I’ve always focused on solving problems for Nevadans.”
Marchant, a former one-term State Assembly member, also lost a bid for U.S. Congress three years ago, then unsuccessfully tried to overturn the results in a lawsuit.
He drew Trump’s endorsement in his race for secretary of state last year as he falsely contended that the 2020 presidential election was rife with fraud and stolen from Trump.
For the most part, candidates who ran on election conspiracies failed in Nevada and other states during the 2022 midterms.
Last year, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) narrowly turned back a challenge from Republican Adam Laxalt, a former state attorney general and election denier.
On Marchant’s Twitter bio, which identifies him as a candidate for Senate, he pledges he would “aggressively fulfill all of the duties of the office and I will specifically focus on election integrity.”
Rosen was president of a prominent synagogue before successfully challenging Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) in 2018. She has not drawn a Democratic primary challenger since announcing her reelection bid last month.
In a statement upon announcing her bid for a second term, Rosen portrayed herself as a problem solver willing to work with Republicans, and said her priorities include “lowering costs for the middle class, defending abortion rights, tackling the climate crisis [and] protecting Social Security and Medicare.”
Democrats control the Senate, 51-49, but the map is favorable to Republicans in 2024. Twenty-three members of the Democratic caucus are up for reelection, compared with 11 Republicans. Besides Nevada, the swing and GOP-friendly states that Democrats will be defending include West Virginia, Ohio, Montana, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
