Gov. Lombardo early favorite for re-election

By Jim Hartman 

Nevada News and Views

While the 2026 election for Nevada governor is still 14 months away, Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo is the early favorite for re-election.

“Leaning Republican” is the non-partisan assessment of Larry Sabato’s “Crystal Ball” project at the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. Sabato is a four-time Emmy-winning political scientist.

Nevada is one of the few states expected to have a close governor’s race in 2026.

In 2022, Lombardo was the only challenger in the country to defeat an incumbent governor and Nevada was the only blue-to-red governor flip that year.

Lombardo, 62, narrowly defeated Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak by 15,386 votes (1.51 percent).

His likely Democratic opponent in November will be term-limited Attorney General Aaron Ford,53, who formally announced his candidacy for governor July 28.

After serving six years in the Nevada Senate, Ford was elected attorney general in 2018 defeating former GOP Assemblyman Wes Duncan by a tiny margin of only 4,533 votes (0.47 percent). He easily defeated his far-right ultra-MAGA GOP opponent, Sigal Chattah, for re-election in 2022 by a wide margin of 77,179 votes (7.89 percent).

Ford’s announcement came a week after another Democratic officeholder expressed an intention to run for governor.

Washoe County Commission Chair Alexis Hill, 42, told the press she intends a gubernatorial run, setting up the prospect of a competitive Democratic primary.

Three days after Hill joined the race, Nevada’s senior U.S. Senator, Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto, endorsed Ford. The other four Democrats in Nevada’s congressional delegation—Sen. Jacky Rosen, Reps. Dina Titus, Steven Horsford and Susie Lee—soon followed suit.

Another potential candidate is former Gov. Sisolak, 71, who told the New York Times in April that he was weighing a possible bid. On July 28, Sisolak said he was “still waiting and watching how things play out.”

Candidates do not formally file for the next election until March 2026, but some have already started fundraising.

Lombardo raised $3.363 million in 2024 and had a huge war chest exceeding $5.5 million cash on hand at year end. Additionally, Lombardo’s Nevada Way PAC had an estimated $3 million in cash at the end of 2024.

Ford is far behind Lombardo’s fundraising with $440,000 cash on hand at year end and Hill shows a balance of $110,000.

Lombardo, Clark County Sheriff for eight years, campaigned for governor to be a check and balance on the excesses of a near super-majority liberal Democrat-dominated legislature.

He’s lived up to that billing by vetoing a record-setting number of bills. In the 2025 legislative session, Lombardo rejected 87 bills and signed 518 bills into law, meaning he vetoed 1 out of every 7 proposals reaching his desk.

Combined with his 75 vetoes in 2023, Lombardo set the record for a single Nevada governor’s term of 162 vetoes.

Each quarter the respected polling organization Morning Consult publishes approval ratings of the nation’s governors.

The latest survey released July 16 found Gov. Lombardo approved of by 53 percent of Nevadans polled, compared to only 32 percent who disapproved of the first-term governor—net approval of +21 percent.

Polling conducted in June by Hart Research, a Democratic polling firm, showed Lombardo widely viewed as a relatively moderate Republican despite his support for President Donald Trump. He had an approval rating of 51 percent with disapproval of 38 percent—net approval of +13 percent.

Lombardo’s biggest strengths are taxes and crime. Voters strongly support his continuing pledge of no new taxes or increases in existing taxes during his term of office.

To reduce crime, voters overwhelmingly trust Lombardo, over legislative Democrats by +40 percent.

In a midterm, voter opinions on the Trump administration will likely play an important role in the governor’s race. The Hart Research poll found Trump underwater— net disapproval of -9 percent among respondents.

While popular and tough to defeat, Lombardo will need to navigate potential Republican headwinds next year.

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E-mail Jim Hartman at lawdocman1@aol.com