Aaron Ford Defeats Joe Lombardo to Become Nevada’s First Black Governor

Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford defeated incumbent Republican Governor Joe Lombardo on November 3. With most ballots counted, Ford received 51.7 percent of the vote to Lombardo’s 44.2 percent. The Associated Press called the race early Wednesday. Lombardo called Ford to concede and posted a statement wishing him well.

Ford becomes the first Black governor in Nevada’s 162-year history and the first Black governor of any state west of the Mississippi River. He is also the first Black person to hold the office of Nevada attorney general, a post he has occupied since 2019, and the first Black majority leader of the state Senate. Lombardo, a former Clark County sheriff, had won the governorship in 2022 by defeating Democrat Steve Sisolak.

Ford centered his campaign on housing costs, union apprenticeships and the price of everyday goods. He received strong support from the Culinary Union. He criticized Lombardo for vetoes on measures that would have restricted corporate ownership of homes and provided free school meals. Ford also highlighted legal actions he took against the Trump administration while serving as attorney general. Lombardo had a substantial fundraising advantage and ran advertisements focused on Ford’s travel and votes on the Board of Pardons.

The result flips the governor’s office back to Democratic control four years after Lombardo’s win. Trump carried Nevada by about three points in 2024. Ford’s margin came largely from Clark County, home to Las Vegas, and from nonpartisan voters. Democrats also won the other statewide constitutional offices: lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, treasurer and controller.

Ford, a native of Dallas, taught mathematics before becoming a lawyer. He has spoken about growing up in poverty and attending school hungry. His campaign framed the race around affordability for working families in a tourism-dependent state. Lombardo’s office released a list of second-term priorities on Election Day, a signal of confidence that did not match the final count. The governor-elect’s team said the win belonged to working people who wanted a Nevada they could afford.

Ford joins Keisha Lance Bottoms of Georgia and Byron Donalds of Florida among Black governors-elect this cycle. His election returns Nevada to the group of states with Democratic governors after a single Republican term. The state remains a presidential battleground. Ford takes office in January with a Democratic legislature in several chambers and a mandate focused on housing and cost-of-living issues.

The race tested whether an incumbent with a law-enforcement background could hold a state that had moved toward Republicans in 2022 and 2024. Lombardo tried to keep distance from national politics while Ford linked him to federal economic policy and gas prices. The association proved costly. Ford overcame being outspent by tens of millions of dollars. His visibility as the state’s top law-enforcement officer gave him name recognition that matched the incumbent’s.

Nevada voters rejected an incumbent governor for the second consecutive cycle. Sisolak lost in 2022; Lombardo lost in 2026. The pattern shows the difficulty of holding the office when economic concerns dominate the conversation. Ford’s platform included expanding apprenticeship programs and repealing the state’s right-to-work law. Those positions aligned him with organized labor in a state where the Culinary Union remains a major political force.

The final unofficial tally showed Ford ahead by roughly 74,000 votes with about 87 percent of ballots counted. Minor-party candidate Danielle Ford, no relation, received 2.7 percent. The margin is wide enough that outstanding ballots are not expected to change the outcome. Lombardo’s concession statement emphasized that Nevadans share a future beyond any single election.