The GOP primary field seeking to challenge Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) grew far more crowded over the weekend as two Republican candidates announced their candidacies in an attempt to flip the key Senate seat red next year.
Tony Grady, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, announced his bid on Tuesday, becoming the latest in a long line of Republican candidates to enter the fray for the competitive seat. Grady’s campaign comes just one day after Jeff Gunter, former U.S. ambassador to Iceland, similarly launched a challenge to the first-term incumbent.
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“Washington elites want to choose our candidates?” the ad reads while showing a clip of President Joe Biden alongside Rosen. “Not a chance.”
Grady and Gunter join an increasingly crowded field of six other candidates who have already announced a bid to take on Rosen next year, including Sam Brown, the favorite of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Jim Marchant, an election denier who ran for secretary of state last year, Barry Lindemann and William Conrad, who both unsuccessfully ran for Senate last year, Ronda Kennedy, and Stephanie Phillips.
The battle for Nevada’s Senate seat is expected to be one of the most competitive races of the 2024 cycle, with the seat being rated as “Lean Democrat” by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. The race could be a tough one for Rosen because Nevada has become a top battleground state in the last several election cycles.
However, Rosen could benefit from strong approval ratings in the Silver State, with 44% of voters saying they approve of her job performance, according to a recent Morning Consult poll. The first-term incumbent also managed to win the seat in 2018 by a margin of 5 percentage points, indicating a sense of strength as she runs for a second term.
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There are 34 Senate seats up for grabs in the 2024 election cycle. Of these, Democrats must defend 23, compared to just 11 for Republicans, putting the GOP in a strong position to flip some crucial Senate seats that could easily shift the balance of power in the upper chamber.
At least eight seats held by Democrats are considered to be tightly contested, with three considered toss-ups heading into the 2024 cycle. Despite their vulnerabilities, the incumbents are reporting strong fundraising numbers so far, giving hope to the party that it can hold on to the tight majority.