RENO, Nev. — The stage is set for what could be one of the most closely watched gubernatorial elections in the country. According to a race call by The Associated Press, Democratic voters in Nevada have selected two-term state Attorney General Aaron Ford as their party’s nominee to challenge incumbent Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo.
Ford, who was elected as the state’s attorney general in 2018, defeated five other Democrats to claim the nomination. He focused his primary campaign on Lombardo, pointing to the rising cost of groceries, gas, housing and healthcare as failures of the one-term governor.
He has also sought to tie Lombardo to President Trump, who endorsed Lombardo and who won Nevada by 3 percentage points in 2024. Trump’s popularity in the state has declined since then, according to the report, setting up a difficult race for Lombardo. The Cook Political Report, which tracks elections, rates the race a toss-up.
Lombardo faced six primary challengers of his own but sailed to victory Tuesday night. That was due in part to his relative success in the state legislature, despite Democratic majorities in both chambers. Among his top accomplishments, according to the report, are a bipartisan bill that sought to hold school districts more accountable, tightening criminal justice reforms enacted after George Floyd’s killing in 2020, and efforts to make housing more attainable. He also helped secure a public financing deal for a new stadium for Major League Baseball’s Athletics, formerly of Oakland.
The governor has secured a sizeable war chest heading into the general election, but money alone is not enough to carry an election in the Silver State, the report said. Messaging and voter contact matter, and that is where Ford may have an advantage. The state’s powerful Culinary Union, which represents hospitality workers across Nevada, officially endorsed Ford last month. The union, which claims as many as 60,000 members in Nevada alone, has become a voter turnout machine. It has integrated polling sites into casinos and resorts dedicated to hospitality workers.