Election denier Jim Marchant launches US Senate bid in Nevada

Jim Marchant, a prominent election denier who unsuccessfully ran for Nevada secretary of state last year, announced on Tuesday he’s running for a U.S. Senate seat in Nevada in 2024.

“We have to encourage principled, America First, MAGA candidates to run for office. That is why I am announcing today that I am running for United States Senate,” Marchant said to cheers while speaking at Fervent Church in Las Vegas.

Marchant becomes the first Republican to take on Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), who’s up for reelection next year. Marchant, a former Nevada state Assembly member, lost his bid against Democrat Cisco Aguilar to be the state’s top election official during the 2022 midterms.

His secretary of state campaign raised eyebrows because he claimed he was a “victim of election fraud” during the 2020 election and claimed while speaking to supporters that “your vote hasn’t counted for decades.”

The 2024 Senate race in Nevada will take place only two years after the Silver State was home to one of the most competitive Senate races in 2022. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) narrowly won her race against Republican Adam Laxalt, and her win helped solidify the Democrats’ majority in the Senate for another two years.

Another Republican who’s been widely floated as a possible Senate contender to take on Rosen is retired Army Capt. Sam Brown, who lost in the GOP primary to Laxalt last year.