Nevada’s governor’s race has been called as of Wednesday morning, delivering another disappointment for Republicans this midterm election season: Democrat Aaron Ford has defeated Republican incumbent Joe Lombardo.
Decision Desk HQ projects Aaron Ford wins the NV Governor General Election #DecisionMade: 10:31 AM EST Follow live results here: https://t.co/AwbKls13Ej https://t.co/iiW2vcVeJm
— Decision Desk HQ (@DecisionDeskHQ) November 4, 2026
Democrat Aaron Ford will be Nevada's next governor after easily defeating Republican incumbent Joe Lombardo. He'll become the first Black governor in Nevada history — and the first in any state west of the Mississippi River. https://t.co/Ti09Fw0Dw9
— Las Vegas Locally 🌴 (@LasVegasLocally) November 4, 2026
Democrat Aaron Ford is elected Nevada governor, defeating Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo. https://t.co/szC4uBdNpC https://t.co/AqMefUynRd
— The Associated Press (@AP) November 4, 2026
With 87 percent of the vote counted, Ford holds 51.7 percent to Lombardo’s 44.1 percent, a commanding lead of roughly 70,000 votes.
Polls from Emerson College and Noble Predictive Insights suggested a far tighter contest, with both showing Ford ahead by just two percentage points at one stage. Noble Predictive Insights’ final poll put the candidates in a dead heat at 47 percent each.
Decision Desk HQ originally predicted that the Republican incumbent held the advantage, but amid last night’s blue wave, that prediction quickly shifted in the Democrat’s favor, as it has in races across the country.
Ford is a former public school math teacher and currently serves as the state’s attorney general.
I'm a proud father, husband, former public school math teacher, and Nevada Attorney General. My name is Aaron Ford, and I’m running for Governor to build a Nevada where every family in every neighborhood can get ahead. https://t.co/ZfwJbO4Blb
— Aaron D. Ford (@AaronDFordNV) July 28, 2025