We’ve been waiting months for this week’s primaries in Nevada because we feel, and have been stressing for a while now, that Nevada is likely the most important state in the 2022 midterms. With the June 14 primaries now settled in the Silver State, we’re bringing you a series of to-the-point, insightful, expansive, and connected pieces on what you should know about the Nevada elections and why they matter so much this cycle.

Nevada Senate Race | Nevada Congressional Races | Nevada Governor’s Race | Nevada’s Executive Branch | The Nevada Republican Party | Nevada and the 21st Century Democratic Party

Incumbent Democratic Governor Steve Sisolak has been something of a case study in pandemic policies and governance in what is such a purple state. He’s running for reelection this year after maintaining stricter mask mandates during much of the pandemic compared to Democratic governors in far less moderate states. Sisolak has pivoted towards campaign mode, is sitting on millions of dollars in campaign funds, and is desperate to shake off what has been characterized as a heavy handed approach to the pandemic in a state whose economy is disproportionately service and human interaction dependent. But he probably drew the toughest challenger he could when Republicans nominated Joe Lombardo. 

Lombardo, the sheriff of Clark County (home to Las Vegas), was long considered the frontrunner for the nomination and ultimately won with a pretty measly plurality of about 38% after a last-minute surge from attorney and retired boxer (and January 6 riot participant) Joey Gilbert. Lombardo’s larger lead in Clark County pushed him to the nomination despite the fact Gilbert won all but the three counties in the southernmost part of the state. Gilbert, though he trails by over 10%, did not concede and believes the Republican primary election that he lost was – well – fraudulent (not exactly a great look for the election conspiracist wing of the party). Other players in this ugly primary included former Senator Dean Heller (he lost to Jackie Rosen in 2018) who got about 13.5% of the vote, North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee, who switched parties in 2021 due to the “socialist takeover of the Nevada Democratic Party” and got 8% of the vote, and venture capitalist/Glenn Youngkin-wannabe Guy Nohra who dumped hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money into a campaign that ultimately claimed 4% of the vote.

Onto the general, Lombardo is emphasizing guns, election integrity, and more guns. And more guns after that. Seriously, in his website’s platform, six of the 13 issues he gives a position on are about firearms, and he devotes several paragraphs to explaining his positions on high-capacity magazines, ghost guns, and gun registries while his entire platform line on taxes is “Joe will veto any new tax increase” and on abortion is “Joe is pro-life.” This is an interesting turn given that, as Clark County sheriff, he has historically supported restrictions on high-capacity magazines, and after the largest mass shooting in United States history happened in Las Vegas under his watch, his deft communication and leadership lifted him up as a “Vegas Strong” figure in its wake.

Sisolak, pivoting away from his controversial pandemic policies, has emphasized issues like abortion rights, high speed Internet access, affordable housing, gun control, and actual election integrity (but in the correct sense of protecting what currently are legitimate elections in the state). Sisolak even has some relatively conservative views on issues like the death penalty (he believes “there are severe situations that warrant it”) but polling has put Lombardo and Sisolak in a practical tie. Given that Sisolak needs to run up the margin in Democratic-leaning Clark County, which is also where Lombardo’s current base appears to be, this may be a tough race for the Democratic governor. That probably makes this race Lombardo’s to lose.