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Nevada Attorney General announces challenge to popular Republican governor

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Nevada Attorney General announces challenge to popular Republican governor


Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford confirmed he plans to challenge Gov. Joe Lombardo (R-NV) in the state’s 2026 gubernatorial race. 

This week’s announcement made him the first Nevada Democrat to publicly state his intentions and the highest-profile member of his party to consider a bid to oust Lombardo.

“I do intend to seek higher office, and I have been having informal conversations with people across the state to better understand what they believe Nevada needs in its next governor,” Ford said in a statement to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, confirming months of speculation about his candidacy. “These discussions are an important part of determining how I can best serve our state.”

Ford was first elected as Nevada’s attorney general in 2018 and decisively won a second term four years later. 

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He previously represented Nevada’s 11th district in the state senate, subsequently rising to top leadership positions in the chamber.

Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford speaks at the Biden-Harris for Nevada team first-in-the-West celebration, Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2024, in Las Vegas, Nevada. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Lombardo has already declared his intention to run for a second term next election cycle “because it’s a huge challenge, and I thrive off the challenge.” 

“And there’s a lot of broken pieces that need to get fixed,” he told the Nevada Independent in April. 

Ford will face a likely grueling battle in a bid to defeat Lombardo. 

The incumbent Republican has built a “getting s**t done” brand that has propelled his rise to become one of the most popular governors in the country. 

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Since he assumed office in 2022, with a victory that made him the only Republican in the country that year to flip a Democratic gubernatorial seat, Lombardo has signed more executive orders than any other Nevada governor. His hardball approach seems to have garnered favor with voters, who handed him a 58% approval rating, per January polling from Morning Consult.

Often the lone GOP voice in a state where Democrats hold majorities in both legislative chambers, Lombardo helped lead Republicans to key victories in Nevada this election cycle. After Nov. 5, Democrats lost their supermajority in the assembly and failed to gain a supermajority in the state senate. The election results scored a tactical victory for Lombardo, as without coveted two-thirds supermajorities in both legislative chambers, Democrats can’t override his vetoes.

As Ford prepares for his campaign against Lombardo, he attracted attention this week for breathing life into controversial charges against six Nevada Republicans labeled as “fake electors.” While the GOP efforts to name President-elect Donald Trump as the winner in the state during the 2020 presidential election were prosecuted, a state judge dismissed the case earlier this year.

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In a new complaint in a Carson City court filed Thursday, Ford asserted that “the actions the fake electors undertook in 2020 violated Nevada criminal law and were direct attempts to both sow doubt in our democracy and undermine the results of a free and fair election.”

“Justice requires that these actions not go unpunished,” the attorney general said.





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Nevada Gaming Control Board asks state court to hold Kalshi in contempt – CDC Gaming

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Nevada Gaming Control Board asks state court to hold Kalshi in contempt – CDC Gaming


Arguing Kalshi is taking hundreds of millions of dollars in wagers on the World Cup and the NBA and Stanley Cup finals, the Nevada Gaming Control Board Friday asked a district court to hold the prediction market operator in contempt, arguing it hasn’t complied with a May 18 judicial order against offering sports betting in the state.

Filed with the First Judicial District Court for the State of Nevada, the filing accuses Kalshi of not geofencing its operations as required, so that “it does not offer or facilitate the offering of any sports-, election-, or entertainment-related event contracts” to anyone located in Nevada.

“Kalshi’s stubborn refusal to comply with the preliminary injunction is causing severe and ongoing harm to Nevada, its finances, and its citizens,” the court filing said. “Every day, Kalshi takes in hundreds of millions in wagers on such events as the NBA Finals, the Stanley Cup Finals and FIFA World Cup. At the same time, Kalshi is severely harming the gaming industry because it refuses to follow the same rules as its licensed sportsbook competitors who actually geofence. This is an intolerable state of affairs. In light of the Board’s investigation and Kalshi’s own admissions that establish its violation of the court order, the court shall hold Kalshi in contempt. Kalshi will never get the message otherwise.”

The Board requested the court to enter a finding of contempt and to impose significant monetary penalties for violation of the court order — either a “disgorgement of all ill-gotten gains” or a sanction of $120,000 a day.

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“The court has required Kalshi to stop offering covered event contracts in Nevada,” Board Chair Mike Dreitzer said in a statement. “We will continue to vigorously enforce Nevada law to safeguard gaming in our state.”

In its filing, The Board said that Kalshi by its own admission has spent $190,000 on what regulators referred to as a “homegrown solution that relies only on internet protocol geofencing solutions” that regulators called “notoriously unreliable” for determining user’s locations. The Board accuses Kalshi of being unwilling to use accurate commercial geofencing solutions.

“This is just more from the same old Kalshi playbook; delay, delay, delay,” the court filing said. “Rather than comply with the court’s order Kalshi has taken only a half-hearted and ineffective measure, apparently hoping that the court will deem its meager efforts good enough, so that it can continue profiting at the expense of the state and its citizens.”

The Board said investigators were able to purchase sports betting contracts on Kalshi’s app for NBA playoff games, MLB games, a boxing match, a tennis match, and a celebrity wedding.

The Board has taken action in recent months to halt the operations of other prediction markets in the state and has successfully restricted all unlicensed prediction markets that had been known to be operating in Nevada, Dreitzer said.

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The Board considers the offering of sports event contracts, along with certain other event contracts to constitute wagering activity under state law, meaning they must be licensed.

“Nevada’s public policy, as expressed by the Legislature, is that the gaming industry is vitally important to the economy of the state and the general welfare of the inhabitants and therefore must be licensed, controlled, and assisted to protect the public health, safety, morals, good order, and general welfare of the inhabitants of the state,” Dreitzer said.



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Big takeaways from Nevada’s elections

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Big takeaways from Nevada’s elections


Nevada’s 2026 election landscape is taking shape after primary results that set up high-stakes general election matchups for governor and the state’s U.S. House delegation. Political strategist Tal Eslick said the central question will be where voters focus.

“The question will be: If Nevada voters are willing to judge Governor Lombardo on his performance as governor or if they are going to really allow this election to be a referendum on President Trump,” said Eslick, a public affairs strategist with Vista Consulting.

Lombardo won his Republican primary handily with around 90 percent of the vote. Democratic challenger Aaron Ford won the Democratic primary with around 63 percent of the vote.

Eslick said Ford’s strategy may be to nationalize the contest. “A national question about the direction of the country under President Trump. And to a certain extent under Republican rule both in the Senate and the House,” Eslick said.

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Nevadans will not have a U.S. Senate race this cycle, but all three U.S. House seats in southern Nevada are on the ballot. Candidates endorsed by Trump won their primaries and are set to face Democratic incumbents Susie Lee and Dina Titus. Republican Cody Whipple won the District 4 primary and will face incumbent Democratic Congressman Steven Horsford. Trump did not endorse a candidate in District 4.

“The ability to win a primary is very different than the ability to win in a general election,” Eslick said.

Eslick said both parties could face challenges appealing to voters in the political middle, with Democrats confronting the dynamics of being longtime incumbents and Republicans having to answer for current policy. He pointed to independent voters as a key bloc in November.

“You have independent voters. Voters who do not associate with either party. And they are going to be the deciding factor in this race beyond that obvious enthusiasm gap, and that is why you might see the messages coming from both candidates tacked towards the middle,” Eslick said.

In Clark County, a contentious Republican primary for county commissioner also appeared to be settled, with Heidi Kasama defeating fellow Republican Albert Mack in District F.

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“It certainly makes it tough when you have a nasty primary to then go back to voters and say, ‘Hey, we can appreciate your perspective,’” Eslick said. “Because in a general election, obviously, you want some support from any majority; whether it is of your party or otherwise.”

Groups supporting Kasama circulated an AI or photoshopped image of a sign showing Mack supposedly next to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, suggesting Mack supported Clinton—an allegation Mack denies.

Eslick said attacks involving AI may be less effective in the general election, given public concerns about the technology and its broader impacts.

“There is a real underlying question, and certainly in Nevada, about what AI means for American workers, what AI means for developing energy, what it means for the cleanliness of water,” Eslick said. “That is going to be a debate that, again, people are going to be talking about at their kitchen tables as they are deciding who they are going to support in the election.”

The general election for all races is set for November 3, 2026.

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More resources available to Nevada entrepreneurs

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More resources available to Nevada entrepreneurs


Here’s to more resources for Nevada entrepreneurs.

The state of Nevada has launched Build Nevada, an AI-powered platform connecting founders, operators and growth-stage companies with Nevada’s capital infrastructure and expansion opportunities. The platform helps companies identify pathways to funding and growth in the state.

Through the platform, companies submit structured project profiles outlining what they are building, their traction, team, and growth plans. Projects are then matched with relevant capital pathways, financing tools and strategic partners across Nevada’s innovation ecosystem. Typical opportunities range from $250,000 to over $3 million, including venture equity, equipment financing, growth lending and expansion capital tied to Nevada operations.

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