A national GOP governors group is launching a seven-figure attack ad campaign focusing on Gov. Steve Sisolak’s administration’s role in granting state approval to a politically connected COVID lab company later revealed to have major issues with testing accuracy.

The ad from the Republican Governors Association is part of a $2.5 million statewide television buy, one of the largest independent expenditures in Nevada’s gubernatorial race this cycle.

It largely focuses on details from a May ProPublica investigation into how the COVID testing contractor, Northshore Labs, was able to rapidly expand into Nevada without proper licensing and yielded a high rate of negative COVID results for people who actually had the illness.

Calling it a “tale of corruption and cronyism that cost lives,” the ad claims that Sisolak’s administration “fast-tracked a government contract for a shady company tied to a campaign donor,” that the incumbent governor got $38,000 in campaign contributions and that his “donor’s sons got a COVID testing contract for their client.”

Reporting from ProPublica showed that Northshore, which is based in Chicago, was able to expedite the Nevada licensing process after contracting with Greg and Angelo Palivos to “build clientele and manage operations.” Their father, Peter Palivos, was described by ProPublica as a “prolific contributor to Nevada political campaigns” and is close with Sisolak — giving his campaign $48,000 since 2011 through himself, an affiliated business and his wife.

Red flags were raised after local and state public health officials found that Northshore’s PCR tests missed 96 percent of the positive cases from the UNR campus. The state ultimately rescinded its license for Northshore in March 2022.

Sisolak — whose office called the company’s actions “despicable” and agreed to cooperate with a federal subpoena for documents about the company — has said he did not have any conversations with Peter Palivos about Northshore’s clinical operations.

The pro-Lombardo Better Nevada PAC is also planning to launch a six-figure radio ad campaign focused on Sisolak's administration and Northshore Labs that will start on Thursday.

Updated at 5:23 p.m. on 8/31/22 to include details about another ad campaign.