“Chutzpah” was the word former Nevada Republican party chairwoman Sue Lowden used to characterize herself on more than one occasion Wednesday morning in a briefing with reporters hosted by the American Spectator and Americans for Tax Reform.

The one-time anchorwoman and one-term state senator in the 1990s sought to paint herself as the GOP candidate tough enough to take on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, notorious for his bare knuckle campaign style. “I’m a bit of a risk taker,” she said at one point, acknowledging, at another, “the kind of pressure that’s going to come my way” and pointing to her ability to stand up to special interests like labor unions during her term in the state Senate.

Lowden said she expected to be the target of Democratic attacks even in the crowded Republican contest. “If I were Harry Reid I’d want to eliminate me in the primary because I’m his greatest fear in the general,” she said.