Nevada Republican gubernatorial candidate Joe Lombardo attends the America First rally at Treasure Island Friday, July 8, 2022.
Published Friday, Nov. 11, 2022 | 4:50 p.m.
Updated Friday, Nov. 11, 2022 | 7:46 p.m.
Nevada is getting a new governor. And from a new political party.
Republican Joe Lombardo — the Clark County sheriff who ran on deregulating Nevada businesses and spending taxpayer dollars on private school voucher programs — will become Nevada’s 31st governor, after unseating incumbent Steve Sisolak in one of the closest gubernatorial races in recent state history.
“I’ve dedicated my life to protecting and serving our community, and now, I’m honored to have the opportunity to protect and serve our entire state as your next governor," Lombardo said in an emailed statement. "It’s a victory for small business owners, for parents, for students, and for law enforcement."
Lombardo, having spent the waning days of his campaign stumping throughout rural desert towns, rode a wave of upstate support and split just enough of deep-blue Clark County en route to his victory — earning 456,396 votes to Sisolak’s 427,853, according to the unofficial tallies posted Friday by the Nevada Secretary of State’s Office.
That was enough for Sisolak, who issued a concession statement later in the afternoon.
“Obviously that is not the outcome I want, but I believe in our election system, in democracy and honoring the will of Nevada voters,” Sisolak said in the statement. “So whether you voted for me or Sheriff Lombardo, it is important that we now come together to continue moving the state forward. That is why I reached out to the Sheriff to wish him success.”
Lombardo’s win, called by The Associated Press, was accompanied by Las Vegas City Councilman Stavros Anthony toppling Democrat Lisa Cano Burkhead in the race to become Nevada’s 37th lieutenant governor. The AP also called that race.
The AP also declared all three Nevada Democratic incumbents in the U.S. House of Representatives as winners.
The victories validate a risky move in redistricting, where Democratic lawmakers in the Nevada Legislature redrew the congressional districts to split Rep. Dina Titus’ Democratic-heavy district. The move gave Rep. Susie Lee more registered Democrats in the 3rd Congressional District, where every vote mattered in her slim victory against Becker. Rep. Steven Horsford is returning to Washington to represent the 4th District.
While Titus didn’t win by the convincing margins she had grown accustomed to in the 1st Congressional District, she is heading back to the House to represent Nevada for a seventh term.
“Voters sent a message loud and clear: They want someone in their corner who never backs down from a fight,” Titus said in a statement.
In the contest for Nevada secretary of state, Democrat Cisco Aguilar on Friday declared victory over Republican Jim Marchant, a 2020 presidential election denier. In a statement, Aguilar said Nevada voters “used their voices to protect our democracy and their fundamental right to vote.”
He added that his campaign was “about defending democracy for all Nevadans…”
In the Friday afternoon update, Aguilar led Marchant by more than 5,000 votes.
Also, Democrat Zach Conine was declared the winner over Las Vegas City Councilwoman Michele Fiore for Nevada treasurer.
The Democrats, with Sisolak as governor and a majority in the Nevada Assembly and Nevada Senate, controlled all three branches of state government for the first time in state history. Democrats still remain the majority in the assembly and senate.
Some were critical of how Sisolak handled the COVID-19 pandemic, including nearly 90 days of business closures to limit the virus’ spread and brought a historic high jobless rate. Sisolak was commended by some for saving lives for the closures, but ultimately shouldered the blame at the ballot box.
“We’ve been through a lot these last four years, from a once-in-a-century pandemic to the stresses and strains of global inflation,” Sisolak said. “I know it has been a challenge for many of you and I couldn’t be prouder of how this state has worked to get us to a better day. I also am proud that we made the tough decisions during COVID that helped save an estimated 30,000 Nevada lives even if those decisions sometimes had tough political ramifications.”
The win marks the start of Lombardo’s career outside of law enforcement. The two-term sheriff rose through the ranks of Metro Police, beginning his career there in 1988. He ascended to be elected top cop in Clark County in 2014, dealing with some of Southern Nevada’s most noteworthy crises the last decade: As sheriff, he led the police response after the Route 91 Harvest mass shooting on Oct. 1, 2017, which killed 60 people and injured hundreds of others. The massacre is considered the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history.
As then-undersheriff, Lombardo also acted as a peacekeeper during the 2014 standoff between armed militia members supporting Bunkerville rancher Cliven Bundy.
Lombardo’s victory raises the alarm for abortion rights advocates, who say he will use his power to restrict access to the procedure and potentially limit forms of contraception like the morning-after pill. Nevada voters in 1990 enshrined in state law the fundamental right to an abortion up to 24 weeks gestation.
Lombardo on his campaign website identifies as a “pro-life” Catholic and was endorsed by several prominent pro-life groups, maintained that contraceptives would stay accessible for Nevadans. Sisolak dedicated much of his campaign depicting his rival as an extremist who would work to undo the state’s abortion protections.
Clark County Election Department Registrar of Voters Joe Gloria said Friday the county only has 50,030 mail-in ballots left to tabulate and that the majority of the area’s votes would be processed by Saturday.
Meanwhile, Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto was running barely behind Republican Adam Laxalt, down by about 800 votes this evening, but with about 55,000 uncounted ballots mainly coming from the state's urban cores, her campaign expressed optimism she could overtake her challenger. Laxalt, meanwhile, has steadily predicted he'll stay in the lead as the count drags on.
