# Joe Lombardo Republican **Governor of Nevada** since January 2023, seeking a second term on **November 3, 2026** against Democratic Attorney General [[Aaron Ford]]. It is one of the country's closest governor's races. ## Background Lombardo was born in 1962 into a military family and served in the Army. He joined the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department in 1988 and spent his career there, and he was elected Clark County Sheriff in 2014. He was sheriff on **October 1, 2017**, when a gunman firing from the Mandalay Bay hotel killed 60 people at the Route 91 Harvest festival, the deadliest mass shooting by a single gunman in U.S. history. He led the department's public response and investigation. In 2022 he beat Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak by about 1.5 points. It was the only governorship an incumbent Democrat lost that year. ## The veto governor Lombardo governs with a Democratic legislature that falls short of the supermajority needed to override him, so the **veto** has been his main tool. - **2023:** 75 vetoes, a Nevada record. - **2025:** 87 vetoes, breaking his own record. The vetoed bills included paid leave, IVF coverage and a bipartisan ballot drop-box bill. His main affirmative deal was the **$380 million in public financing** for the Athletics' move to a Las Vegas Strip ballpark, passed in a June 2023 special session. ## The 2026 race | | | |---|---| | Primary (June 9) | Lombardo 90.8%; Ford won the Democratic primary with 63.3% | | Endorsement | Trump endorsed Lombardo | | Polling | Emerson (Sept 5–8, 2026): Ford 44, Lombardo 42, 11% undecided; aggregate averages at mid-September had Lombardo up about 1 | | Approval | Lombardo 40% approve / 39% disapprove; Trump 37 / 55 in Nevada (Emerson) | | Ratings | Mostly Toss-up; Sabato's Crystal Ball Lean R | Lombardo is running about even in a state where Trump is deeply underwater. That gap is the whole race: he is running on his own brand as a pragmatic former sheriff, while Ford runs against the Trump brand. His record as a party-builder is mixed. In the June primaries his endorsed candidate for Secretary of State lost to the election-denier [[Jim Marchant]], so even a popular Republican governor could not steer his own party's nominating electorate away from the MAGA pick ([[Cisco Aguilar]]). ## See also - [[Aaron Ford]] · [[2026 Governor Races Hub]] · [[2026 Midterms Hub]] · [[2026 Key State Races Hub]] - [[Jim Marchant]] · [[Cisco Aguilar]]