Nevada

Attorney General Aaron Ford, a Democrat, defeated the Republican governor, Joe Lombardo, 51.6% to 44.0%, in a state Donald Trump carried by 3.1 points in 2024.¹ Democrats won all five of the other statewide offices, two of them, lieutenant governor and controller, from Republicans. They also took the only U.S. House seat they did not hold: in the 2nd District, which Trump carried by 13.9 points, Teresa Benitez-Thompson beat Republican Dave Flippo by 5.8. Democrats kept their other three seats by 21.5, 21.5 and 22.7 points, in districts the 2024 presidential vote had split by 2.3 points or less. The state Senate stayed at 13 Democrats and 8 Republicans, and the Democratic majority in the Assembly grew from 27 of 42 seats to 32.

Against the 2024 presidential vote, the governor’s race moved 10.7 points toward the Democrats. Ford drew 80 votes for every 100 Kamala Harris won here, and Lombardo drew 64 for every 100 of Trump’s. The race drew 1,091,332 votes in our count, 107% of the 2022 figure and 73% of the 2024 presidential vote. Democratic candidates won the U.S. House vote, all districts added together, by 17.1 points; Republicans had won it by 11.1 in 2024.

The move was largest where most Nevadans live. The Las Vegas area, which casts 69% of the vote, moved 12.9 points, from D+2.6 to D+15.5. The Reno area, with 20% of the vote, moved 7.8 and changed sides, from R+4.5 to D+3.3. The small towns and rural counties moved least, 4.6 points, and still voted Republican by 41.4.

Clark County, which is the whole of the Las Vegas metro area, cast 68% of Nevada’s votes and moved further than any other large county, from D+2.6 to D+15.5 on 741,428 votes. Washoe County, in the Reno area, went from D+1.0 to D+8.6. Elko County moved 11.1 points and still voted Republican by 45.5. None of the state’s 17 counties changed sides, and two moved toward the Republicans: Douglas County, which went from R+32.9 to R+35.5, and Eureka County.

Nevada goes from divided government to full Democratic control. The party already held both chambers and now has the governorship.¹ Democrats won all six statewide constitutional offices for the first time since 1962, and Ford will be the state’s first Black governor, the Nevada Independent reported.^{1, 2} The Nevada Constitution, as Ballotpedia reproduces it, requires two-thirds of the members elected to each house to override a veto, and the same share to pass a bill that raises public revenue.³ Democrats now have that in the Assembly, where 28 seats are needed and they will hold 32 of 42, and remain one seat short in the Senate, where they hold 13 of 21 and need 14.^{1, 4}

The same constitution, in Ballotpedia’s reproduction, makes it the Legislature’s duty after each census to apportion legislative seats by law, and a law goes to the governor.³ That governor will now be a Democrat. The secretary of state’s office did not change hands: Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar, a Democrat, defeated Jim Marchant, the Republican he also beat in 2022.²

Ford campaigned against Lombardo’s record number of vetoes of bills the Democratic Legislature had passed.² “We’re going to tackle affordability starting on day one. We’re going to tackle the high cost of housing. We’re going to build more homes. We’re going to open the doors for first-time home buyers,” he said in his victory speech, and he said he would declare an affordability emergency directing state agencies to find savings for residents.⁵ The Legislature convenes on February 1, 2027.⁴ A law firm’s client alert reports that Elaine Marzola will be Assembly speaker and Sen. Edgar Flores the Senate majority leader; the current majority leader, Nicole Cannizzaro, was elected attorney general, and Clark County officials appoint her replacement in the Senate.^{2, 6}

Both statewide questions were constitutional amendments on their second trip to the ballot. Question 6 passed in 2024 and needed approval again this year to become part of the constitution, the Nevada Independent reported.⁷ It puts the state’s existing abortion law, which permits the procedure through 24 weeks of pregnancy, into the constitution, and drew 63.5% yes in our count. Question 7, which requires photo identification to vote in person and an identifying number with a mail ballot, also passed for the second time, with 62.2%.⁷

Democrats will hold a 4-1 majority on the Washoe County Commission, the first time they have held a majority of its seats, the Nevada Independent reported.^{4, 8} Reno elected a new mayor for the first time in a dozen years: Kate Marshall, a former state treasurer and lieutenant governor, whose campaign focused on scrutiny of the city’s spending and opposition to data centers within city limits.⁷ In Clark County, Democrat Minja Yan won a County Commission seat over a Republican Assembly member and a former state senator, and Assembly member Daniele Monroe-Moreno, a Democrat, was elected mayor of North Las Vegas.^{1, 7}

On the Clark County School Board, the Nevada Independent called three races for the incumbents: Brenda Zamora and Linda Cavazos over challengers backed by the county chapter of Moms for Liberty, and Irene Bustamante Adams. Had the two challengers won, four trustees would have been aligned with the group.⁹ Two seats on the Supreme Court were on the nonpartisan ballot, and Ballotpedia lists both incumbents, Kris Pickering and Douglas Herndon, as winners.¹⁰

No Republican-held seat in our count stayed Republican. What the party kept was in the Legislature and the rural counties. Republicans held Senate Districts 16 and 20, which left Democrats one seat short of two-thirds in that chamber, and the Legislature will have eight Republican senators and 10 Republican Assembly members.^{4, 6, 7} Lombardo carried 15 of the 17 counties, and the small towns and rural counties gave him a margin of 41.4 points where Trump’s had been 46.0. In Henderson, a nonpartisan office stayed with Mayor Michelle Romero, a registered Republican, who won re-election by more than 20 points, while a Democrat took a seat on the City Council.¹¹ Washoe County’s district attorney-elect, Wes Duncan, is a Republican, the Nevada Independent reported.⁴

The next Senate seat on the ballot is Catherine Cortez Masto’s, in 2028, in a state that voted Republican for president by 3.1 points in 2024 and Democratic for governor by 7.6 this year. Nevada holds its presidential primary on February 1, 2028, a year to the day after the new Legislature convenes.⁴ Before then, Senate Democrats choose a new leader, and Clark County officials fill the Senate seat Cannizzaro leaves.²