Senate candidate Sam Brown, left, talks with retired Navy veteran David Warren at a recent meet and greet. Brown is running for the seat currently held by U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto.
U.S. Senate candidate Sam Brown has been making his rounds in rural Nevada as well as the metropolitan areas.
Brown, who recently spoke before a small gathering of Churchill County residents at the Maine Street Cafe, is running in the Republican primary to unseat incumbent Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, who’s seeking a second term.
Brown said he’s visiting the smaller communities to learn about the challenges rural Nevada faces. He said drought issues, water rights, water legislation, mining and access to public lands for ranchers are big issues.
“I want to learn more about these issues and become a champion for these issues,” he said.
Brown introduced himself to the Churchill County residents by referring to his youth. He said he grew up in Arkansas on a farm near a city about the size of Fallon. He said the area was known for agriculture and industry.
“It was a working-class community,” he said. “My father went to school to become an agriscience major, but while in school, his grandfather sold his dairy farm.”
Brown, who received a master’s degree in business administration, and his family relocated from Texas to Reno where he was hired as a manager at the Amazon Fulfillment Center. He said he and the other employees had a mission to complete every day just like the military when he served in the U.S. Army.
“There was a satisfaction of being part of a team,” he said.
Brown, though, eventually started his own company that provides services to Veterans Affairs clinics for veterans to obtain their pharmacy medications when they urgently need them.
In the meantime, Brown said he became involved with the Washoe County Central Committee by knocking on doors and supporting candidates. Although former President Donald Trump didn’t win re-election, Brown said he has disapproved of President Joe Biden issuing executive orders undoing what had been done under the previous administration.
Brown touched on the following concerns or issues:
• Called the 1619 Project, which was written in 2019 to re-examine the existence of slavery, revisionist propaganda. According to its description, the project “aims to reframe the country's history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the very center of the United States' national narrative."
With a stroke of a pen to exercise executive orders, he said Biden eliminated the 1776 Project, which was approved during the Trump administration. The project promoted patriotism and pride in American history by abolishing critical race theory and The 1619 Project from the public school curriculum.
• Questioned the Biden administration’s negotiations with Iran on a nuclear deal.
• Characterized recycled candidates as those who feel they’re the most qualified to run for office.
• Encourages high-school graduates to look at career technical education.
• Rectify the crisis on the border.
• Ensure people are actually in the rooms watching the counting process for elections.
• Believes in the Second Amendment.
Brown’s campaign has taken in more $1 million according to information released in early October.
If elected, Brown said he would like senators to cross the aisle to work on crucial issues, but he doesn’t agree with “writing off” those who have differing opinions. Brown also told the small group his family had a commitment of serving their country, and his father joined the National Guard. Likewise, Brown had envisioned military service.
The retired Army captain was adamant that students should have a vision for their education, whether if it’s with a trade school or university.
“The next four years (of high school) are going to dictate what opportunities you have for the rest of your life,” he said. “If you want to go to college, you have to work now.”
The U.S. Military Academy at West Point became his goal, and he was accepted in 2001. Two years after graduating in 2005, Brown deployed to Afghanistan with the 3rd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division at Kandahar. While on a mission, however, his platoon was ambushed, and his vehicle struck a roadside bomb, injuring Brown. He said the unit was a mission to ensure the installation of a turbine into a dam which would provide electricity in southern Afghanistan.
“Every day I planned for my life but it went into a different direction,” he explained. “I had planned for a career.”
Instead, he spent his time at a burn unit at Fort Sam Houston at San Antonio, Texas, when he met his future wife, Amy.
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