Happy Saturday and a special shoutout to everyone who took the time to meet with me in Reno! I had an excellent reporting trip to the Biggest Little City in the World (and some lovely runs along the Truckee River and Lake Tahoe) — but it means I missed the party in Milwaukee, where Republicans formally nominated Donald Trump for president on Thursday.
But there was still plenty of Nevada news to break down! So instead of the usual format, I’m going to jump right to The Nevada Angle: a few takeaways from the Republican National Convention.
The Nevada Angle
- Sam Brown made his pitch
Sam Brown was one of several U.S. Senate hopefuls to take the stage Tuesday night in Milwaukee, providing him with a prime opportunity to introduce himself to a national audience — and donor base.
Brown’s short speech focused on themes of restoring hope, buoyed by his story of surviving an explosion in Afghanistan that burned 30 percent of his body.
“I know the importance of hope in difficult times,” Brown said, before recounting getting severely burned after driving over an improvised explosive device in the Kandahar region while deployed with the Army in 2008. “Through the pain and anguish of recovery, and the years that followed, I never lost hope.”
He presented his candidacy for Senate as an opportunity to bring hope to Nevadans suffering from rising inflation and an unemployment rate persistently higher than the national average. And he dinged his opponent, Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), and President Joe Biden for “wanting to raise your taxes while dodging their own.”
(Trump, of course, refused to release his taxes for years, and paid no income tax in 2020.)
Brown, as he has all year, tied himself closely to the party’s nominee, saying he would stand beside Trump as a senator to achieve his goals, including ending taxes on tips.
Brown ended his speech with a national security appeal, urging audience members to look at his face, heavily scarred from burns.
“This is the high cost of war,” Brown said. “If Joe Biden stays in office, more service members will pay this price.”
It’s a line Brown has used before, to protest Senate consideration of requiring women to register for the draft. This time, he deployed it to build a foreign policy case for Trump, saying that Biden’s leadership had made the likelihood of U.S. troops dying in battle more likely.
More service members died under Trump’s term than Biden’s; however, the U.S. is providing weapons for conflicts in Ukraine and Israel.
- Trump highlighted the Nevada Senate race
When Trump took the stage Thursday night, he began by recounting the assassination attempt and pledging to be a president for all Americans.
What followed was more typical — a 90-minute speech, sometimes straight from the stump, often meandering, full of anecdotes, asides, criticism of Democrats and Trump-isms. But amidst diatribes on inflation and the border, Trump also took some time to talk about Nevada.
Trump detailed his plan to end federal taxation on tips — first announced in a Las Vegas rally. Trump had previously said he got the idea for the policy from a Las Vegas waiter, but he told the story in more detail on Thursday.
He recounted that while dining at the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas on the Strip, his waitress mentioned that the government was “after me all the time on tips.” When Trump asked how the government was able to track her cash tips, he learned from her that most tips were added to the check these days.
“Everybody, everybody loves it,” Trump said of his proposal, which is supported by both of Nevada’s senators. “Waitresses and caddies and drivers and everybody. It’s a large, large group of people that are being hurt badly. They make money, let them keep their money.”
Trump also promised to return to Nevada soon and mentioned he is up 14 points in polls — an exaggeration over polling averages but in line with an early May poll by The New York Times.
Trump also seemed to briefly go off-script to talk about the Nevada Senate race during a section on Afghanistan, pivoting to Brown when mentioning injured troops from the 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“[Brown] paid the biggest price probably ever paid by anybody that is running for office, and I think he is going to do great,” Trump said. “He’s running against a person that is not good, not respected. A total lightweight.”
We won’t know of the financial ramifications of this shout-out until next quarter’s campaign finance reports, but I can imagine that Brown will be able to fundraise significant sums — particularly from people who are not closely following Nevada’s Senate race but tuned into the convention — from his moment in the spotlight. Trump said his name six times.
He did not mention Rosen by name, but still referred to her as a “total lightweight” — giving Rosen an opportunity to fundraise off of Democrats’ Trump fury, their biggest source of money and votes since 2016. Rosen already posted about the line on X with a fundraising appeal and sent one to supporters via email as well — meaning she thinks she can bank on the moment.
Around the Capitol
💰What to do about Menendez — Should Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) be allowed to collect his government pension after a felony conviction?
Rosen has a bill that would stop that. The No Corruption Act, passed through the Senate last year, would prevent members of Congress from taking their pensions if convicted of felonies related to their time in office. The bill got momentum last year because of trials and tribulations of former Rep. George Santos (R-NY); now Rosen and co-sponsor Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) are renewing their push in the wake of Menendez’s conviction.
🏘️Federal money for the Historic Westside — The Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority and the City of Las Vegas will receive $50 million in federal funds to create more housing in the Historic Westside’s Marble Manor Apartments.
The grant takes a holistic approach to housing, funding a community garden, grocery store and other community improvement-oriented projects.
What I’m Reading
News 4 Nevada: Interview with Nevada Sen. Jacky Rosen on Trump assassination attempt, Biden as nominee
“He’s the nominee, and he’s running.”
The Nevada Independent: In Vegas, Biden woos Black voters with promises of economic equity, civil rights
The White House is getting into the weeds on Las Vegas Valley land policy.
CNN: Biden’s health and age under even further scrutiny amid questions over his political future
A full accounting of Biden calling Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford the governor, and whether he was joking or not.
Notable and Quotable
“He paid the biggest price of any senator ever to run for the Senate.”
— Donald Trump on Sam Brown
