Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, a Democrat, will take on Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo this November in what’s shaping up to be one of the tightest gubernatorial contests of the 2026 election cycle.
Ford currently serves as the state’s attorney general. Lombardo, the incumbent, is seeking a second term — but he’s doing it while navigating friction from his own party’s direction in Washington, according to NPR’s reporting published Tuesday, June 10.
The race is set against a backdrop of national Republican headwinds in a state that has swung between parties in recent election cycles. Nevada handed Joe Biden its electoral votes in 2020 and re-elected Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto in 2022 despite a rough national environment for Democrats. Lombardo won the governorship that same year by a narrow margin.
The challenge for Lombardo
NPR’s reporting describes Trump’s federal policies as complicating Lombardo’s path — a dynamic that could matter in a state with a sizable independent voter bloc and a Democratic-leaning urban core centered on Las Vegas. Lombardo has to hold Republicans while not alienating the moderates he’d need to win statewide. That’s a hard needle to thread.
Ford, meanwhile, has statewide name recognition from his time as attorney general and would be the first Black governor in Nevada history if elected. NPR’s report didn’t detail specific policy contrasts the two candidates have drawn, nor did it include polling or fundraising figures as of its publication date.
No debate schedule or primary filing deadline details were included in NPR’s report.
Reporting by NPR. Read the original report.
