Lombardo is struggling with Latino voters. He's betting big to win them over.

Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo's campaign and affiliated PACs have spent more than $1 million in Spanish-language advertising this election cycle — a major increase from his first governor campaign — and part of a broader effort to win over one of Nevada's most important voting blocs.

Nine Spanish-language ads they have released this cycle promote everything from Lombardo's public safety policy to his efforts to cut regulations to attacks on his opponent, Democratic Attorney General Aaron Ford, for extensive travel out of Nevada. 

One of this cycle's ads features a coveted endorsement from Peter Guzman, the president of Nevada's Latin Chamber of Commerce, a longtime supporter of Lombardo.

"Everything costs more, but Joe Lombardo gets it," Guzman says inside a warehouse while the camera pans to shots of construction workers and the governor talking to people on the site. 

The advertising represents a concerted effort from Lombardo to capture the attention of the state's Latino population, which has become increasingly competitive for Republicans in Nevada. His team recently hired Eva Sara Landau, a prominent Hispanic political operative who worked for President Donald Trump in 2024, as his campaign's southern director. The campaign also launched Latinos Con Lombardo, which produces campaign events and features local political figures such as Republican attorney general nominee Adriana Guzmán Fralick, who was born in Mexico.

Freddy Corona, a 43-year old entrepreneur and member of the recently formed group, told The Indy that he was never politically active before, but joined the group after he was approached by someone at his church. He said that minimizing tax increases and "business-friendly" laws are the most important issues for him. 

"What they support wasn't really conducive to what I believe in and my mindset," Corona said about Ford.  

In what's expected to be one of the most competitive gubernatorial races in the country, winning over the state's Latino electorate could prove pivotal. The group makes up about 1 in 5 of the state's voters. Although winning the bloc in Nevada is all but out of reach for Republicans, Latinos have increasingly shifted right over the last decade and losing by a smaller margin could put Lombardo over the edge in a close race. 

"You just look at it and go, 'There's the ability to do stuff here and move numbers,'" Republican GOP strategist Jeremy Hughes said in an interview. "I think they will have a big say." 

Lombardo has historically struggled with Latinos. One survey from voter engagement organization Somos Votantes this April found that Ford outperforms Lombardo by about 21 percentage points among the Latinos, while an Emerson College poll conducted in late 2025 found Ford leading Lombardo among Latinos by 16 percentage points. 2022 exit polls indicated that Lombardo only won over about a third of the constituency that year. 

A recent focus group convened by Equis Research, which studies Latino voting trends, gave Lombardo a poor rating as governor. The three voters comprising the focus group cited economic concerns and a recent incident where he avoided being cited for an alleged red light violation by invoking his status as governor. They added that they are more generally disillusioned with the Republican Party, specifically with President Donald Trump's administration, than with Democrats. 

In comparison to Lombardo, Ford has spent far less on political advertising overall and is instead placing more of an emphasis on direct outreach. So far, the Democratic candidate has only put out one Spanish-language advertisement, which he used to launch his campaign — it features him talking directly to the camera in Spanish and emphasizes his working-class upbringing. 

"From a humble neighborhood, a new champion rises," the ad opens. 

David Damore, a political science professor at UNLV, contended that Lombardo simply has more money to spend on attracting Latino voters. As of late July, Ford had $2.6 million cash on hand in comparison to Lombardo's $9.2 million. 

Damore said that extra funding allows Lombardo's campaign to be more aggressive in its approach and try to "define their opponent" early in the race. Meanwhile, Ford is taking more of a "wait and see" approach when it comes to ad spending and will likely release more when the election kicks into high gear this fall, Damore said.

Still, Damore contends that direct outreach can make a true difference in winning over voters. 

"Much more important is what you do at the door — that is, the canvassing and the engagement," Damore said. 

Ford's outreach

Ford told The Indy that he has tried to center Latino voters from the start. 

In 2025, he launched his campaign at the East Las Vegas Community Center — in the heart of one of the city's majority-Latino neighborhoods — and in November, he visited the city of West Wendover (also majority-Latino) as part of his "Working Class First" listening tour. There, Ford visited a small business that has faced higher costs because of what his campaign said were "Lombardo-Trump" tariff policies. 

His campaign has also hired three Latino department heads and has won the endorsement of the Nevada Latino Legislative Caucus, composed exclusively of Democrats. He has answered questions in Spanish at press conferences; in an interview with The Indy, Ford, who studied abroad in Mexico, said he's been "enamored" with the Spanish language ever since his adolescence.

"The Latino vote is entirely essential," Ford said in an interview. "I've made it a point to meet with Latino communities over the course of this campaign." 

On top of affordability issues, Ford contends that Lombardo's collaboration with the Trump administration on immigration enforcement — such as deploying the state's National Guard to help ICE — has alienated some Latino voters. Ford maintains that if he is elected, he will minimize state support of ICE and touted his track record on the issue, pointing to several know-your-rights workshops his office has hosted as well as a lawsuit he joined against an executive order attempting to limit birthright citizenship.

"I do not believe that we should be utilizing any resources of our state to do ICE's job," Ford said. "I have learned from our Latino communities … that they want our money spent to improve healthcare, to improve infrastructure and to improve our schools."

The Spanish-language television network Univision has been conducting surveys in battleground states since March, including in Nevada. A poll the outlet conducted in May indicated that cost of living and the economy as a whole rank as top issues. Immigration enforcement tactics, meanwhile, ranked as the 10th most important. 

"I would say that while there has been [Latino] movement away from Republicans, it doesn't necessarily mean it's movement and support of Democrats," said Kate Coleman, who works on Univision's political and advocacy engagement team. "It's really a movement toward who's gonna address the challenges in their lives."