LAS VEGAS (AP) — Nevada Democratic U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen and Republican challenger Sam Brown painted each other as extremists Thursday night in the presidential battleground state where the Nov. 5 election could determine control of both the White House and the Senate.
The election pits Rosen, a first-term senator seen as a political consensus-builder, against Brown, a retired Army captain who bears scars from battlefield injuries and is endorsed by former President Donald Trump.
In their only face-to-face debate before early voting begins Saturday, Brown repeatedly aligned himself with Trump on domestic and foreign policy while calling Rosen a political insider and “elitist,” singling out her stands on immigration reform.
“This is again what you would expect out of an elitist from D.C. whose own neighborhood has more security than our border with a gate and security guards,” Brown said.
Rosen defended her support for President Joe Biden's policies intended to ease inflation and make housing more affordable, as well as her efforts to work across the aisle with Republicans.
“My opponent is so stubborn and so extreme he often uses the words `not negotiable' and `no middle ground,'” she said. “I am one of the most bipartisan, independent and bipartisan senators service today."
The hourlong appearance hosted by KLAS-TV in Las Vegas was be aired live in both English and Spanish. Abortion, inflation and immigration are among the leading issues and voters have been inundated with ads for both candidates.
Brown, during a campaign rally last Friday in Reno, promised to secure the U.S. border; make housing more affordable; lower prices on food, fuel and medication; end taxes on tips; and eliminate taxes on Social Security benefits.
Rosen argues that her challenger is out of touch with Nevada residents, where nonpartisan and other voters make up nearly 40% of the statewide electorate of 2.4 million. Voting leans Republican in rural areas and Democratic in the two most populous and urban areas: Las Vegas and Reno.
Records show Rosen has a 3-1 edge in fundraising and spending and a lead in polls of voters. Several Republican elected officials have said they intend to break ranks with the GOP and vote for Rosen, including the mayors of Sparks, near Reno, and Ely in rural eastern Nevada.
Rosen has a hometown advantage in and around Las Vegas, where she has lived for more than 40 years. She was a computer programmer and president of a prominent synagogue in suburban Henderson before she was elected as a congresswoman in 2016 and defeated a GOP incumbent to move to the Senate in 2018.
Brown was badly wounded in 2008 while serving in Afghanistan and spent years recuperating before leaving the Army in 2011. He started a business helping veterans get medical care and ran unsuccessfully for a Texas statehouse seat in 2014 before moving to Nevada in 2018. He lost a GOP primary bid in 2022 to challenge Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto.
Abortion is a key issue in Nevada, with voters facing a ballot initiative aimed at enshrining in the state constitution a 1990 law that makes the procedure legal up to 24 weeks. Democrats across the nation have made abortion rights a central message since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision establishing a nationwide right to abortion.
Brown describes himself as “pro-life,” and Rosen has said that if he is sent to Washington, D.C. he would vote for a national abortion ban. Brown and his wife Amy told NBC News earlier this year that she had an abortion before the two met and his website states that as a senator, Brown would not vote to overturn the decision of Nevadans.
Brown has sought to blame Rosen for the economic policies of the Biden administration, which Republicans say led to high inflation as the country recovered from the coronavirus pandemic.
Rosen released a new ad this week touting work to lower costs on prescription drugs, stop price gouging by grocery store chains and address housing costs.
Brown has tied himself closely to Trump, who contested his narrow presidential election loss to Biden in Nevada in 2020. The state's top election official, a Republican, was later censured by the state GOP for certifying that the ballot count was not marred by widespread fraud.
Early voting in Nevada begins Saturday.
___
Associated Press writer Scott Sonner contributed from Reno, Nevada
Ken Ritter, The Associated Press
