Welcome to Nevada Week.

I'm Amber Renee Dixon.

First it was the NHL, then the WNBA, the NFL, and now MLB, pending Major League Baseball's approval of the Oakland Athletics relocation.

So when will the NBA join Las Vegas's Major League pro sports lineup?

We will explore that ahead.

But first, a check on the Republican primaries in the race for president and U.S. Senate.

For that, we go to Gabby Birenbaum Washington, D.C. correspondent for the Nevada Independent.

Hi, Gabby.

Hi, Amber.

Thanks for having me.

Yes, thank you for joining us.

All right.

So ahead of the presidential election in 2024, only two Republican candidates for president have visited Nevada.

The first was Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, the second former President Donald Trump.

As you reported at this time in 2016.

Eight different Republican presidential hopefuls had already visited Nevada.

So why so few this time around in this swing state?

I know it's been pretty disappointing and I think there's a few explanations for it.

From my conversations with elected Republicans and Republican strategists in the state.

It seems that in 2015, at this point, for the 2016 election, the race was considered really wide open.

You know, Trump had yet to really take hold of the Republican Party.

There were a number of serious candidates at that time that people remember back Jeb Bush was perhaps considered the front runner.

That was Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, of course, Trump.

And so it was a pretty wide open primary in which a lot of candidates thought making an investment in Nevada would be a worthwhile pursuit.

This time you have a much different Republican Party.

You have a party that Trump has had control of for at this point nearly eight years.

He's running again.

He was the candidate in the last two elections.

He won the Nevada primary among Republicans.

Back then, it was a caucus, but he won the Nevada caucus the last two times around.

Obviously, in 2020, he didn't have a challenger, but he has the support of a lot of notable Republicans in the state, including a lot of members of the state party.

I mean, there hasn't been an official endorsement, but he really went out of his way during his rally to thank Michael McDonald, the chair of the state party.

He shouted out Jim de Graaf and read his the national committeeman.

He shouted out single chatter, Who's the committeewoman?

He really knew these members of the Nevada Republican Party, the elected officers of the party.

He clearly maintained still a close relationship with Michael McDonald.

A lot of the party figures were very involved in his efforts to try and overturn the 2020 election.

A lot of them are even facing legal repercussion for having done so.

But it appears, based on their participation in his rally and polling that we see in the state, that they maintain that close relationship and that certainly, I think if other candidates are looking at the state, that's something that they would be nervous about.

Now, some of the endorsements that Donald Trump does not yet have include Nevada Republican Governor Joe Lombardo, as well as Republican U.S. Representative Mark Amodei of Nevada.

But they have endorsed anyone at this point.

However, according to your reporting, because of that lack of endorsement, it is, quote, another sign of Nevada's inconsequential reality at this point.

How so?

Yeah, I think I talked to a congressman the other day.

He said the only candidate that he's spoken to thus far has been Governor DeSantis.

So I think part of that just might be a lack of outreach from the campaigns at this point towards those potential Nevada surrogates.

And I also think for Governor Lombardo, he is probably the biggest name Republican in the state.

That'll be an important endorsement when and if he chooses to endorse Congressman Amodei in 2015 and 16 went through multiple candidates.

He first was on team Jeb Bush.

He went to Rubio.

Ultimately, of course, he ended up with Trump.

And so I think it's a combination of them, perhaps biding their time and just a lack of outreach, as we've seen throughout this presidential election so far.

Okay.

I want to move on to Nevada's U.S. Senate race right now.

Current Democratic Senator Jacky Rosen running for reelection.

The Republican primary is going to determine who she will face.

And now throwing his hat in the ring is retired Army Captain Sam Brown.

Last year, he ran in the GOP primary against Adam Laxalt.

Lost.

Why does he think he has a shot this time around?

Yeah, I mean, I think last time he was really running as an insurgent, Laxalt had the backing of a lot of political figures.

He has a famous last name in the state.

He had the benefit of having run before and won statewide office when he was attorney general.

This time around, I think it's much different for Sam Brown.

He has the support of the National Republican Senatorial Committee that's run by Senator Steve Daines from Montana.

Those are Senate Republicans looking to avoid the mistakes of the 2010 election in which candidates like Laxalt ended up losing in winnable states like Nevada.

And so I think they were actively involved in recruiting Sam Brown.

They're going to be actively involved in supporting him.

And so this time around, I think two national Republicans, he's the favorite candidate.

And so he has that going for him.

Okay.

And as you and I spoke about on the phone, it is different for his primary competition in that race.

Former State Assemblyman Jim Marchant.

He ran for secretary of state in 2022. Who is the support he's getting?

Yeah.

So Jim Marchant definitely maintains a base in the state among, I think, a lot of what is that Trump base, you know, at his launch event.

Several notable right wing radio hosts and media personalities attended both the chairman's of the Clark County Republican Party and the Washoe County Republican Party were there.

I think that shows that he still maintains a base of support among, again, that state party that's also been supporting Trump.

And so in that sense, especially given that Sam Brown has only lived in Nevada for five years, Jim Marchant might have a leg up in terms of statewide support, although it's going to be hard to contend with Sam Brown's ability to fundraise potentially off of the back of that NRC endorsement.

All right.

And the primary difference between these two candidates on campaign issues would be.

It's hard to say.

I think, you know, my colleagues interviewed Sam Brown earlier this week and they gave him an opportunity to sort of distinguish himself from Jim Marchant.

And he said, I think just the fact that we're both in the race is an indictment of Jacky Rosen.

He didn't want to go there.

So to me, I think the biggest difference thus far, Marchant has already endorsed Trump.

He's popped up at a few Trump events.

Sam Brown has yet to endorse a Republican candidate.

So I think if we can draw a distinction right now, it might be that support for Trump.

As well as Jim Marchant being a denier of the results of the 2020 election.

Yes, that's a good point.

Jim Marchant has been a very prominent election denier.

That was his platform when he ran for secretary of state in 2022.

Sam Brown has definitely not been as far on that issue.

He when we asked him about it recently, he said he didn't want to relitigate issues from three years ago.

His point throughout has been that he wants more faith in Nevada elections, but he hasn't gone as far as Jim Marchant, who clearly believes that the election was stolen.

Gary Birenbaum of the Nevada Independent, joining us from Washington, D.C., thank you for your time.

Thank you.