Election 2024: Q&A with Sam Brown, Jacky Rosen running for Nevada's U.S. Senate seat

Updated with candidate Q&A and to remove candidates who have dropped out.

If Republican challenger Sam Brown prevails over Democrat Jacky Rosen in November, it will be the first time a Republican has won a U.S. Senate seat in Nevada since 2012.

The Cook Political Report analyzing national races had categorized the Nevada Senate race as a toss-up in April but, based on fresh polling, changed it to “lean Democrat” in August.

Election Day is Nov. 5. Early voting runs from Oct. 19 to Nov. 1.

Also running in the U.S. Senate race are Libertarian Chris Cunningham and Independent American Janine Hansen. The Reno Gazette Journal is not pursuing interviews with these candidates because they are not mounting significant campaigns. Cunningham has reported raising about $800 while Hansen has not reported any campaign contributions.

Who is Sam Brown running for Nevada’s U.S. Senate seat?

• 3 issues to focus on if elected: Growing the economy to lower costs on housing, groceries and energy; securing our borders and fixing our broken immigration system; and ending taxes on Social Security benefits and tips while making tax cuts permanent for working families
• Age: 40
• Education: Graduate of U.S. Military Academy at West Point, master's degree in business administration
• Occupation: Small businessman
• Political experience: Runner-up in Nevada’s 2022 Republican primary for U.S. Senate
• Family: Married with three children
• Campaign contributions from July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024: $9.7 million (cash on hand: $3.1 million)

Who is Jacky Rosen running for Nevada’s U.S. Senate seat?

• 3 issues to focus on if elected: Lowering costs for hardworking families, supporting public safety and national security, and expanding access to health care and restoring reproductive freedom
• Age: 67
• Education: Bachelor’s degree in psychology; associate’s degree in computing and information technology from Clark County Community College (now College of Southern Nevada)
• Occupation: Current U.S. senator, former computer programmer.
• Political experience: Elected to the U.S. Senate in 2018. Previously represented Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2016 to 2017.
• Family status: Married with one daughter
• Campaign contributions from July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024: $23.6 million (cash on hand: $9.5 million)

What is one action you'd support to make legal immigration easier, and one that would make illegal immigration harder?

• Sam Brown: Let’s start with making illegal immigration harder. We have got to return to the policies that President (Donald) Trump had in place where we're putting up a barrier on the border.

We've got to allow our border patrol to be able to do their job, which is securing the border, not just processing people. And let’s return to a remain-in-Mexico policy where people who are claiming to seek asylum don't actually come into the United States to do that initially.

To make legal immigration easier, we need to probably increase the number of people who are working on the legal immigration processes.

Another area that would be easy to start with are people who have successfully come to the United States under student visas and received their education here. Many would love to stay after they graduate and get jobs and pursue American citizenship. But in many cases, those students have to go back to their home countries and kind of begin the process over.

Another category of legal immigration applicants we ought to consider for fast track or prioritization is people from countries that we already have close relationships like the Philippines and Israel.

• Jacky Rosen: We have to work on expanding our visa program because we have a huge shortage of nurses across this country. We have a shortage of teachers. We need seasonal workers. I'd like to see us expand the way that we work on our visas and expand opportunities and pathways for citizenship.

On the other side (making illegal immigration harder), I supported the Border Protection Act.

It was negotiated by a Republican, independent and Democrat. It was a good nuts and bolts bill that would give us the tools, technology and resources for our border patrol agents to stop the flow of fentanyl, to stop human trafficking, to stop guns and contraband coming in.

It gave us more border officers, and it gave us technology. You know how your suitcases will go through that screening at the airport? We do something similar for trucks and cars where they drive through these bays.

With artificial intelligence and (other) technology, you can see what's in those cargo trucks that shouldn't be in there, and then the agents can pull them out of line, and we can stop the contraband from coming in. So I'd really love to see the border protection bill passed.

What do you see as America’s obligation, if any, to Ukraine?

• Brown: The United States of America has done far more than any country – in fact, nearly double what the entire European Union has done – in supporting Ukraine. And clearly (Vladimir) Putin's aggression there is unwarranted and should be pushed back on.

The United States of America has classically been the leader of the free world, and when we allow for bad actors like Putin to go unchecked, other people and countries suffer, and there's an impact across the world. So we ought to look at what we can do, but we cannot weaken ourselves in the process when we have foes like China; Russia, obviously; Iran; North Korea.

There's this new alignment of countries that would love to see the demise of the United States and our allies around the world. So we need to be really cautious about not spreading ourselves so thin that we are unable to help other allies like Israel, like Taiwan, and if the need arises, to protect our own country, which is the greatest mandate of our government.

• Rosen: Putin is a brutal dictator who invaded Ukraine for his own political gain. And if Putin takes Ukraine, what's to stop him from going into other countries and taking them over?

Do you think we want to see him on the Polish border looking down into Europe and taking that over? I don't think so. With our allies in NATO, it's important that we stop brutal dictators, that we don't give them the idea it's OK to do whatever that they want. There are rules, and you cannot invade another country without consequence.

I've been over in the region myself. The Ukrainian people are fighting to protect their country. They love their country. It's our job to give them the tools and resources to save their country, and by doing that, it will protect the rest of Europe and protect all of us around the globe. If we give Putin an inch, he will take a mile.

What’s one federal economic action affecting working people that you'd like to see continue or expanded and one you'd like to cut back on or stop?

• Brown: There are a lot of small businesses that employ folks in our state and across the country that benefited from the Trump tax cuts.

Especially given the inflation and higher prices we've all had to absorb, those tax cuts have probably been the saving grace for many businesses and many working people out there because it gave them a bit of breathing room that they needed to stay afloat.

Unfortunately, at the end of 2025, many of those tax cuts are going to expire. So in my view, it's necessary we have an administration and a Congress with Republicans that represent the strong desire to see those tax cuts extended or made permanent.

As for something that's hurting working folks, it’s our federal energy policy. We went from being energy independent to aggressively allowing the energy market to sort of determine where pricing ought to be and what sort of mix there is for (electric vehicles) and renewables versus traditional gas- and diesel-powered vehicles and other sources of power.

As the government has tried to shift where the market needs to source its energy, it's led to increased costs for everyone.

We have got to allow the market to work, to lean into the blessing that we have in this country with abundant natural resources, and not allow policymakers to manipulate markets for their energy ideals.

• Rosen: Nevadans are being squeezed by rising costs, whether it's housing, prescription drugs, gas or groceries. And so lowering costs for hardworking families – and growing the middle class – it's really important.

So what we did for seniors when we passed the Inflation Reduction Act is we lowered their drug prices. We lowered insulin to $35 a month.

Now for the first time ever, the top 10 drugs (covered under Medicare Part D) will be lowered through the power of negotiation. That savings will put $6 billion back in the Treasury and $1.5 billion back into the pockets of seniors. That's something we’ve done, and seniors are seeing the benefits. I’d like to see that continue.

I'm chair of the (U.S. Senate) Tourism, Trade and Export Promotion Subcommittee, and it's a really important committee because tourism, of course, is the backbone of Nevada's economy.

The top businesses are in our hospitality industry, and 25% of our workforce is employed in hospitality. We know it's a heavily tipped industry, so I think we have to look at ways that we can find relief for all those tipped employees. We're working on bipartisan legislation that will get rid of federal income tax on tips and deliver immediate financial relief.

And we can do other things in that regard as well. We can raise the federal minimum wage for all workers. We can pass the PRO Act to protect the right to form a union and collectively bargain – that's going to help our service workers as well – and we can expand paid sick leave and family leave and protect access to affordable health care.

Candidate responses were edited for length and clarity from phone interviews.

Mark Robison is the state politics reporter for the Reno Gazette Journal, with occasional forays into other topics. Email comments to mrobison@rgj.com or comment on Mark’s Greater Reno Facebook page.