washingtonreporter.news · September 8, 2026
EXCLUSIVE: Gov. Joe Lombardo touts successes on education, health care, public safety, and affordability, while arguing that Nevada can’t afford Aaron Ford – Washington Reporter
# EXCLUSIVE: Gov. Joe Lombardo touts successes on education, health care, public safety, and affordability, while arguing that Nevada can’t afford Aaron Ford
Matthew Foldi September 8, 2026 · 2 minutes ago
SUMMERLIN, Nevada —
In 2022, Joe Lombardo made history as the only challenger to oust an incumbent governor during the only midterm election of President Joe Biden’s time in office. Now, he is favored to stave off a challenge from the Gov. Gavin Newsom-endorsed Aaron Ford, Nevada’s current attorney general.
While speaking alongside businessman Albert Mack at the kickoff event for the latter’s Mack PAC, Lombardo made the case to Nevadans that they should send him back to Carson City for four more years.
The Washington Reporter was on scene as Lombardo explained that Ford’s policies for Nevada are unaffordable and unnecessary. “He has proposed an $18 billion tax package in order to make it a more affordable to the state of America,” Lombardo explained. “That is insane; it’s insane, and that’s on top of what we’re already paying for in taxes and the general funds of the state, and what we do as the state going forward.”
Ford’s agenda, Lombardo said, “just doesn’t make economic sense. But why do they do that? Because it gets votes. The people who are business owners, such as the individuals in this room, are a very small subset. All the other voters over here are the ones asking for the handouts. So it’s a math problem.”
Throughout Nevada, Ford has an informal running mate who Republicans are eager to tie him to via a series of ubiquitous billboards: California’s Newsom. Better Nevada PAC has covered the Clark County with signs reading “Gavin Newsom endorses Aaron Ford,” alongside a small disclaimer noting that the photo of the two Democrats has been “manipulated” by artificial intelligence.
Politico’s Samuel Benson noted that Republicans in Nevada are eager to use this governor’s race as a test case against a likely Newsom presidential bid. Lombardo, Benson reported, is “trying to pin high Nevada fuel prices — a majority of which is imported from California — on ‘Gavin Newsom’s energy policies.’ He lambasts California as too expensive and too regulated. And he’s hammering his Democratic opponent, Attorney General Aaron Ford, for accepting Newsom’s endorsement, betting that it will turn off Nevada swing voters.”
On the flip side, Lombardo argued that his record as governor on issues ranging from housing affordability to land management to healthcare to public safety — his career-long forte — merit another four years for him as governor.
“I think we’ve done a fantastic job in the last four years to move the state forward, not backwards,” he explained, hitting on a theme that he repeatedly addressed during his remarks. “I had a platform when I decided to run, and it was based off diversifying the economy because we came out of the heels of COVID, and we were suffering more than most of the states in the union because our economy was based off tourism.”
“We had to expand on that in order to drive ourselves through times of need and times of emergency,” Lombardo reflected. “Second was the improvement on our education system. We were constantly ranked at the bottom of the barrel as an education system here in the state of Nevada, and we had to change the dynamics there. We had to put a financial injection into the system for resources. We had to put accountability on top of the system to ensure that good money is not being wasted on bad money. We had to incentivize teachers in order for them to want to be teachers, and we included school choice.”
“Let’s also look at healthcare,” the governor continued. “We had to improve on the healthcare. It was at the bottom of the barrel, just like education. Why is that? Because our doctors, upon graduating med school, are going to other states to do the residency programs, and that’s where they tend to stay when they do that. So we put a significant amount of money into that system to tune of 360 million dollars to build residency programs and specialties, so they will stay here, do their residency here in the state of Nevada, and stay here upon graduation…that’s good money going after good money in that endeavor. We also got the Medicaid reimbursement by 14 percent, so that providers will have ability to make a living within the state of Nevada for what they do in the healthcare space. And we’ve expanded technology, telemedicine, and everything else that the state can help in that endeavor. So if you live in Elko or Ely, not necessarily here in Clark County or Washoe County, you can have competent medical service provided to you in that endeavor. We also provided for inclusive transportation. A lot of people don’t have ability to pay for transportation via ambulance, and subsequently the state will come in there and help with that transportation piece.”
When it comes to “healthcare, education, and the economy, we’re moving forward,” Lombardo said. Nevada is “number one in small business growth currently here in the state. Number one in job growth in the state of Nevada. We’re number one in job growth here in the state of Nevada.”
Finally, Lombardo, the longtime Sheriff of Clark County, added that his success with public safety is another area he is proud of. “Last in that platform was public safety,” he said. “No economy thrives, no community thrives when they’re in fear. We did a significant amount of work in both last two legislative sessions, and we passed significant amount of legislation to make people pay for the crimes they commit.”
But Lombardo made it clear to those assembled that he has more work to do. “Policies of a low tax environment, a stable regulatory environment, a stable tax environment, are bringing success into the state of Nevada,” he added. “Now we come to today and I made the decision to run again. Why is that? I was pushing against the majority in both Houses of the legislature for four years. I’ve been playing defense…[now] what we need to do is flip the Senate, get out of this possibility of Democrats having a supermajority in the Assembly, and we can play offense, and we can do even better. And that 30 percent that we weren’t able to get over the finish line, we can get it over the finish line into the next cycle.”
“Additionally,” Lombardo said, “we have a housing problem in the state of Nevada. Our plan is going to be inclusive of affordable, attainable housing. The state has never really been involved in housing outside of rental assistance in the welfare base. We changed the AMI, the area median income qualifier, to get state assistance for your down payment if you wish to purchase a house or rental assistance, if that’s the decision you choose to do.”
“The last piece of that cog is the Trump administration convincing the Bureau of Land Management to release federal land in the state of Nevada,” he said. “We have a supply and demand issue. We have an inventory issue, which is driving the cost that we’re paying for land and construction and rent and mortgage payments. Upon the release and cooperating with BLM, we’ve codified all the state land and the federal land here in the state of Nevada. Now we’re in the process of passing LAND Act via Congress so that we can distribute more land across the board here in the state of Nevada.”
One of Lombardo’s biggest applause lines was when he criticized what is quickly becoming a policy that Democrats across the country are running on: “rent control doesn’t work,” he said, tying it into the broader success that candidates aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are having in Democratic primaries across the country.
“Rent control does not work,” Lombardo emphasized. “It’s another feel-good item. ‘We’re gonna cap your rent. We’re t