Nevada Senate candidate praised Rick Scott for creating 'roadmap' to sunset Medicare

Nevada Republican Senate candidate Sam Brown embraced an unpopular plan for actions to be taken by potential GOP majorities in Congress that Florida GOP Sen. Rick Scott released in February 2022. At the time, Brown called Scott’s work on the plan “something I admire.” The plan would have meant higher taxes for most Americans and the possible sunsetting of safety net programs like Medicare and Social Security.

After unsuccessfully running for the Texas Legislature in 2014 and the GOP nomination for Nevada’s other U.S. Senate seat in 2022, Brown announced in July that he will seek the Republican nomination to challenge first-term Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen in the November 2024 election. National Republicans, including current National Republican Senatorial Committee Chair Steve Daines, reportedly recruited Brown to run, deeming him the most electable candidate.

On Feb. 22, 2022, as chair of the NRSC, Scott unveiled his “Rescue America” plan for what the GOP would do if it regained congressional majorities in the 2022 midterms.

The plan included a proposal to make all Americans who are retired or have lower incomes pay income taxes; massive cuts to the federal workforce; and an automatic sunset for every single federal law after five years. “I’ll warn you; this plan is not for the faint of heart,” Scott said at the time. “It will be ridiculed by the ‘woke’ left, mocked by Washington insiders, and strike fear in the heart of some Republicans. At least I hope so.”

Two days later, Brown appeared at the monthly luncheon of Las Vegas’ Spring Mountain Republican Women and was asked about Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and what senator he would most seek to emulate.

After saying that McConnell had “failed Republicans in some areas” but had helped get President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees confirmed, Brown singled out Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul and said of Scott:

In terms of who I see myself being like … I’ll tell you who right now, is, I think I appreciate that he’s trying to look forward, he’s trying to cast a positive vision — one of the things I think that some of Republican Party leaders have failed at is that we have become labeled. And sometimes we do this to ourselves as the party of No, oh, no, we’re not going to do that. You know? We are the party of just rejecting policy instead of the party of projecting ideas, and what Rick Scott has done in attempting to create a roadmap for a better America is something that I admire as well.

A Brown campaign spokesperson did not immediately respond to an American Independent Foundation inquiry for this story.

Polls showed many of the idea’s in Scott’s plan were widely unpopular. Many in the GOP distanced themselves from it, including McConnell.

Though as NRSC chair Scott had predicted a “red wave” with a gain of at least three Senate seats, Democrats gained one seat in the November 2022 midterm elections. McConnell allies blamed Scott.

Scott told Fox News that his party’s failure was not his fault and that the GOP lost “because we didn’t have a plan.”

In January 2023, he launched a national ad campaign promoting the same Rescue America package once again.

Brown, an election denier and staunch opponent of reproductive rights, will face other Republicans in a 2024 primary, including Jim Marchant, who was the 2022 Republican nominee for Nevada secretary of state.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.