A super PAC linked to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) plans to make its first expenditures in Nevada’s Senate race less than two weeks before the election.

According to reporting from NBC News, the Senate Leadership Fund (SLF) is expected to make a $6.2 million ad buy in support of Republican candidate Sam Brown. SLF had previously spent money on Senate races in Michigan, Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, but avoided the race in Nevada, where Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) has maintained a lead in the polls throughout the cycle.

The polls have been tightening — Rosen’s recent lead has hovered around 4 percentage points or 5 percentage points, while previously she routinely saw double-digit leads — and early voting data looks promising for Republicans, who have an edge in turnout in the primaries. for the first time since 2008.

“President Trump is doing very well in Nevada and we think Sam Brown can do that too,” SLF President Steven Law told NBC News.

In another sign that Republicans are starting to feel optimistic about Nevada, National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) will come to the Silver State on Tuesday for a last-minute campaign with Sam Brown, according to a source familiar with Daines’ travels.

Even with the SLF funding, Democrats still spent nearly $25 million more than Republicans in the Nevada Senate race, according to AdImpact, between past and future caveats. Analysts and operatives believe Rosen’s early spending advantage — launching an advertising blitz in the spring, during the Republican primaries — has contributed to her consistent lead in the polls.

And Senate Majority PAC (SMP), SLF’s Democratic counterpart allied with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), has been active in Nevada throughout the cycle. In the final two weeks of the election, SMP is spending $8.3 million in Nevada, more than the group in all but two swing states — a sign they expect a competitive race.

“Mitch McConnell ignored Sam Brown for months,” SMP spokesperson Hannah Menchhoff said in a statement. “That he is now coming to try to appease the party elite says more about Brown’s quality as a candidate than it does about their actual belief that he can win.”

In 2022, Nevada was home to the nation’s closest Senate race: Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) won by less than 1 percent of the vote.

This story was updated on 10/24/24 at 2:00 PM to add comment from the Senate Majority PAC.