Attorney General Aaron Ford officially launched his long-expected campaign for governor Monday, becoming the immediate Democratic favorite in the 2026 race to unseat incumbent Gov. Joe Lombardo, a Republican bracing for a tough race in a swing state midterm.

Ford’s formal campaign launch at the East Las Vegas Community Center followed endorsements from Nevada Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen and other prominent state Democrats who backed the 53-year-old heading into the last year of his eight-year tenure as attorney general.

“I know what it’s like to feel like you're pushing a rock uphill in that fight for a better life … It feels like the deck is stacked against us. Because you know what? It is,” Ford said in his nearly 17-minute campaign launch speech. “You need someone who is going to roll up their sleeves and fix what’s broken.”

Ford has previously described his role as attorney general as focused on justice in all its forms — environmental, racial, housing, social — and on Monday, he touted suing both the Trump and Biden administrations, saying if someone hurts Nevada families, he’s “not backing down.” 

If elected, Ford would be Nevada’s first Black governor.

Lombardo, a former Clark County sheriff, campaigned on his ability to be a backstop to Democratic policies coming from the Legislature, and has lived up to the billing by vetoing a record-setting number of bills. 

With more than a year until the 2026 election, recent Democratic polling shows Lombardo, widely viewed as a moderate Republican despite his support for President Donald Trump, has a positive approval rating among Nevada residents but is likely vulnerable on economic issues and his ties to Trump.

John Burke, a spokesman for the pro-Lombardo Better Nevada PAC, has said polls prove that there’s bipartisan support for Lombardo and voters “want to see him continue to move our state forward.”

However, Geoff Garin, the president of Hart Research, who has conducted extensive polling for Democrats, told The Nevada Independent in a July interview that the polling reveals vulnerabilities and “there’s no real depth” to Lombardo’s support.

Though Ford must first succeed in the upcoming June 2026 primary election to square off against Lombardo, he centered his messaging around economic headwinds and his opponent. 

He attacked Lombardo for “kowtowing to Trump” and killing bills aimed at alleviating high housing costs for working families, such as legislation aimed at curbing the corporate purchase of homes.

“Hardworking Nevadans across the state are seeing their costs rise because Joe Lombardo would rather cater to special interests and Donald Trump than stand up to Nevada families,” Ford said, vowing to lower the cost of prescription drugs to Medicare-negotiated prices for everyone, prevent price-fixing of essential goods and services and crack down on corporate purchase of homes — all legislation that Lombardo has vetoed in the past.

“If you’re tired of the status quo, and you’re tired of people who won’t stand up for you, you want someone who’s going to fight for a Nevada that finally works for everyone, join us,” Ford said in his closing remarks.

Ford declined to answer questions from reporters after delivering his speech.

Political trajectory

Ford often says his background drove him to politics, saying in past campaigns that he “knows what it’s like to fight for a better life.”

Ford relied on food stamps, Medicaid and other public assistance programs to survive in his earlier years as a single father. In a 2017 interview with The Nevada Independent, Ford said that he wanted to live as an example for his children.

“My motivation was to be different than what I experienced growing up,” Ford said. “I want my kids to see what a real man looks like.”

Ford grew up in Texas, attending Texas A&M before getting a master’s degree, law degree and Ph.D. from The Ohio State University. After moving to Las Vegas, he worked as an attorney before being elected to the Nevada state Senate in 2012. 

Eventually rising to the top-ranking position of Senate majority leader, Ford worked to advance policies related to curbing prescription drug costs and increasing police transparency, two issues he would continue to advocate for after he was narrowly elected as Nevada's attorney general in 2018, defeating Republican Wes Duncan by less than a percentage point. He won a second term in 2022, handily dispatching Republican candidate and attorney Sigal Chattah, who is now serving as interim United States Attorney for the District of Nevada.

Ford’s time as Nevada’s attorney general has been marked by litigation related to the opioid drug epidemic. During his time in office, the state has won roughly $1.1 billion in settlements from pharmaceutical companies and retailers such as Walgreens, AmerisourceBergen and Johnson & Johnson — his office contracted with his former law firm to pursue the litigation. 

During the 2023 legislative session, Ford’s office proposed laws addressing organized retail crime, making it easier for law enforcement to respond to domestic violence incidents and increasing penalties for fentanyl possession. 

In the 2025 legislative session, Ford spearheaded legislation banning price manipulation of essential goods and services. Lombardo vetoed it. 

A Ford bill that initially called for an age verification system on social media sites but was significantly scaled back through the legislative process died awaiting final procedural sign-off on the last day of session. 

A Democratic primary

Ford’s long-anticipated announcement comes a week after another Democratic officeholder publicly expressed interest in running for governor.

Washoe County Commission Chair Alexis Hill told The Nevada Independent that she also intends to run for the seat, setting up a likely competitive Democratic primary.

Read more: Washoe County Commissioner Alexis Hill plans to run for governor

Three days after Hill joined the race, Cortez Masto (D-NV) endorsed Ford, and the rest of the five Democrats in Nevada’s congressional delegation have since followed suit.

In a Monday statement, Hill congratulated Ford on being the Democratic “insiders’ choice.”

“I look forward to engaging with Nevadans on concrete plans, real solutions and change when I formally announce soon,” she wrote.

Another rumored potential contender for the seat is former Gov. Steve Sisolak, whom Lombardo defeated in 2022. Sisolak told The New York Times in April he was weighing a possible bid, and on Monday said in a statement to the Times he was “still waiting and watching how things play out.”

Immigration 

Already, Ford and Lombardo have traded barbs over immigration policy, after Ford’s office released a set of nonbinding model immigration policies to state agencies earlier this year, fulfilling a directive from the Democrat-controlled Legislature.

Lombardo’s office suggested the policies would turn Nevada into a “sanctuary state” — a politically charged term with no official federal or state definition that generally refers to jurisdictions that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities. 

Read more: How Nevada’s attempt to clarify immigration enforcement rules turned political

Ford’s office flatly denied that the model policies, required to be developed under a state law, constituted support of so-called “sanctuary policies.” 

But the episode revived attacks stemming from 2017, when Ford, as Senate majority leader, supported a bill that would have barred state and local police authorities from cooperating or participating in federal immigration activities without a warrant. Though the bill was substantially amended, Nevada law enforcement officials remained largely opposed to the proposal.

Ford canceled a planned hearing on the measure before the bill was ultimately dropped.

Since then, Ford has emphasized that he does not support “sanctuary state” policies.

“Make no mistake about it: AG Ford and the Office of the Attorney General do not support sanctuary for any criminal — period,” Ford’s office said earlier this year.

This story was updated at 3:40 p.m. on 7/28/25 to add information about Sigal Chattah's current position and again at 5:04 p.m. to include a statement from Washoe County Commissioner Alexis Hill.