Adam Laxalt, a former Nevada Attorney General, has won the Republican Senate primaries and will face Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat, in what will likely be a highly competitive November general election.
The victory of Mr. Laxalt on Sam Brown, a retired army captain, was reported by The Associated Press. He and Ms. Cortez Masto, seen as one of Democrats’ most vulnerable leaders, will now prepare for a costly months-long confrontation as Republicans try to regain control of the Senate.
As co-chair of the 2020 Trump campaign in Nevada, Mr. Laxalt was backed by both former President Donald J. Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, two of the most popular figures in the Republican Party.
The statements of support were a cornerstone of Mr. Laxalt, with national leaders visiting the state to rally for him as well as shooting television commercials on his behalf. Mr. Laxalt also got a boost from the Club for Growth, an influential conservative anti-tax group, whose political action committee spent nearly $1 million.
The Republican primaries had intensified in recent months between Mr. Laxalt and Mr. Brown, who gained significant support from some local Republican groups when he criticized his rival’s connections in Washington, portraying himself as the “outsider” who could bring change to the Capitol.
Now a small business man, Mr. Brown a Purple Heart after being seriously injured in Afghanistan and still bears the scars on his face.
Mr. Laxalt, a grandson of Paul Laxalt, a former state senator, and son of Pete Domenici, a former New Mexico senator, has promoted baseless claims of fraud in the 2020 election. Mr Laxalt began laying a detailed foundation this year to fight electoral fraud in his own race, months before the vote.
He has also embraced the set of conspiratorial beliefs known as replacement theory, telling supporters in campaign appearances that the “left” wants to transform the country by allowing immigrants to enter the country illegally. Mr Laxalt has simultaneously courted Latino voters, who are expected to play a pivotal role in the November election.
Ms. Cortez Masto has already spent about $13.5 million on the race, according to AdImpact, which tracks ad spend. She has covered the airwaves with television ads in English and Spanish to showcase her work delivering pandemic aid to the state.
The race has also attracted a lot of outside spending. Somos PAC, which targets Latino voters, has spent $2.8 million to defend Ms. Cortez Masto, the first Latina elected to the Senate, and to portray Mr. Laxalt as “not for us” in advertisements in English and Spanish.