In Nevada, another GOP Senate contender downplays stance on abortion
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Republican Senate candidate Sam Brown at his campaign office during his 2022 run for Senate. Photo: Josh Edelson/Getty Images
The Republican frontrunner in Nevada's hotly contested Senate race is quietly reframing his work with a conservative group he led last year, de-emphasizing its opposition to abortion and playing up his focus on other issues.
Why it matters: Sam Brown appears to be the most recent Republican to try to cloud their anti-abortion views ahead of the 2024 election, after a series of elections in which the GOP has been punished for orchestrating the fall of Roe v. Wade.
- Brown is seeking the GOP nomination to unseat Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) in a state that is a key battleground for the presidential race and the fight over which party will control the Senate.
Zoom in: Brown, who unsuccessfully sought the GOP Senate nomination two years ago, led the Nevada branch of the Faith and Freedom Coalition between his 2022 and 2024 campaigns.
- The group is an offshoot of the national Faith and Freedom Coalition, a staunchly anti-abortion organization that has supported some of the toughest state-level abortion restrictions — including Texas' ban on the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy.
- Brown — a former Army captain who was severely burned after a roadside bomb detonated in Afghanistan in 2008 — was featured prominently on the state organization's website before declaring his Senate candidacy last July, according to archives of the site.
- Today, Brown's footprint on the organization's website essentially has been erased, aside from a 2022 press release announcing his appointment as the group's chair.
Brown has described the state organization as a "spinoff" of the national group, but also has called it a "separate entity."
- His campaign says his efforts with the Nevada group were focused more on issues such as human trafficking, rather than abortion.
- "His efforts were focused on several critical issues facing our state: combating human trafficking, advocating for meaningful criminal justice reform, and supporting the devastated communities recovering from the COVID-19 shutdowns," Kristy Wilkinson, Brown's communications director, told Axios.
Brown's precise position on abortion has become a bit murky.
- His campaign website describes him as "pro-life," but it's unclear where he draws the line. He supported a 20-week ban when he ran for state office in Texas in 2014.
- Like many Republicans this election cycle, Brown says abortion legislation is an issue for states to decide — and that because Nevadans have protected such rights in the state constitution, he wouldn't support a federal abortion ban.
- He says he supports abortion restrictions that include exceptions for rape, incest and the health of the mother.
- Brown's wife, Amy Brown, went public in February about her own experience of getting an abortion in her 20s.
Other Republicans — mindful of how anger over abortion restrictions helped Democrats in the 2022 midterms and several state elections in the past two years — have tacked to the middle on abortion, or at least defanged their stances.
- Arizona MAGA Republican Kari Lake, who's seeking a Senate seat in that swing state, previously supported an abortion ban in the state but has since come out against such a measure.
- Larry Hogan, a moderate Republican running for a Senate seat in heavily Democratic Maryland, vetoed a bill when he was governor that would have widened access to abortion.
- But this week Hogan said he's "pro choice," and added that he supports codifying abortion rights into federal law.
In Brown's case, he's facing a November ballot in Nevada that's expected to include a broad measure to guarantee reproductive rights.
- Rosen, along with Nevada Democrats, have cast Brown as a far-right backer of strict abortion limits.
- Nevada Democrats have pointed to reports that Brown's campaign website refers women considering abortions to counseling centers that encourage women to continue their pregnancies.
