What campaign finance reports tell us about Nevada’s 2026 elections
In today’s edition: Our in-depth analysis of the campaign finance filings. Plus: An unreported voter registration glitch, a Nevada lawmaker concerned about Greenland and how dark money played into the last election.
Welcome to election year! Today’s Indy Elections comes to you on publication day for The Game Changer, Indy CEO Jon Ralston’s biography of the late Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV). I’m excited to read the definitive story on one of the most powerful leaders in the state’s history.
For exclusive analysis and interviews on the current state of Nevada politics, read on.
This newsletter is published every other week. We want to hear from you! Email your newsletter editor Mini Racker at [email protected].
What we learned from campaign finance reports
In case you’ve been living under a rock (must be nice), Nevada’s campaign finance reports for all of 2025 were released last week.
Indy reporters pored through the reports to put together our main takeaways, including how fundraising for the top races compares with four years ago, where things stand in closely watched legislative contests and what might be happening in newly competitive contests in Northern Nevada.
See our story here for more information and the toplines from last week.
— Eric Neugeboren
Glitch results in voters being switched to nonpartisan
About 7,000 Nevada voters’ party affiliations were erroneously changed to nonpartisan last year after a transaction at the Department of Motor Vehicles, according to the secretary of state’s office.
The glitch, which has not been previously reported, did not affect the security of the state’s voter database or system, state election officials said. All affected voters were notified via email, text or mail.
In Washoe County, about 4,900 voters had their affiliations switched. Once the issue was discovered, all party affiliations were changed back.
The error came the same year as the state introduced new processes for voters to select their parties — a change that’s also contributing to a surge of nonpartisans. Since the start of 2025, new voters can no longer choose their preferred party when they register at the DMV and instead must wait until their registration is verified before selecting their party through a mailed postcard or online, or they’ll be registered nonpartisan by default.
— Eric Neugeboren
What We’re Reading and Writing
The Nevada Independent: Lombardo touted women’s sports measure as ‘vote getter’ that could help his re-election
Gov. Joe Lombardo (R) told supporters he needed something extra to turn out voters.
The Nevada Independent: Ford intros housing plan with rental aid programs, crackdown on corporate homebuying
Attorney General Aaron Ford (D) is tapping into voters’ No. 2 concern.
The Nevada Independent: National Democrats launch seven-figure voter registration campaign in Nevada, Arizona
The Democratic Party is finally telling Nevada voters why they should join.
Punchbowl News: Frontliners erupt at DNC’s Martin
Battleground leadership representative Rep. Susie Lee (D-NV) organized a meeting in which vulnerable members slammed Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin for prioritizing state parties over the DCCC; Punchbowl later reported that Martin called her to complain that the details leaked.
Politico: House GOP offer to Dems: Explicit funding for ICE body cameras following Minneapolis shooting
After the ICE shooting in Minneapolis, Rep. Mark Amodei’s (R-NV) role leading homeland security appropriations has put him in the national spotlight.
D.C. Download
We talked to Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV) about her resolution demanding President Donald Trump’s administration hand over materials related to its threatened Greenland takeover; we’ve edited her comments for length.
Racker: What made it so important to introduce right now?
Titus: It’s not just about Greenland. It’s about presidential authority and it’s about NATO. … With this president, who knows, he may be sending troops into one of our allies’ territory, and so we need to find out what’s going on. Transparency is the key, and he’s supposed to be a transparent president and a peace president, and neither seems to be the case.
Racker: Where do you think that comes from?
Titus: I don’t know. He wanted Canada to be the 51st state. He couldn’t get that. So maybe he thinks Greenland can. First he was talking about, ‘We need Greenland as a way to stave off China and Russia in the Arctic.’ We don’t hear much about that anymore. Now, we need it for some reason to have, I don’t know, they’re even talking about putting databases up there. … Wants to change the name to Trumpland or something.
Racker: Have you been talking to your Republican colleagues about this?
Titus: There's a lot of interest in this resolution. There seems to be more focus on it among Senate Republicans, who’ve said that they will stop him from invading Greenland. But we’ve got a number of co-sponsors on our resolution. People want to kind of get on board, so it’ll be bipartisan by the time it's over.
Racker: Anything else?
Titus: The meeting with the Danes … when you come out of a meeting that’s about diplomacy, and you use certain terms, that means it didn’t go well. And they used those terms. They said there was “fundamental disagreement,” that means they’re on opposite sides, and they said “frank discussions,” that means they totally disagree.
Racker: Why should Nevadans care?
Titus: Nevadans will see it in the bigger picture: Do we need to be invading another foreign country?
— Mini Racker
Indy Ad Watch
AD-NALYSIS OF THE WEEK: Dems push to tie Lombardo to Trump
The Nevada Democratic Party wants to drag Lombardo’s approval ratings down to Trump levels, and a new digital ad aimed at reaching 50,000 swing voters reflects the strategy.
The minute-long ad features spliced comments from Trump, Lombardo and media reports on everything from tariffs and housing prices to the economy.
In a non-presidential election year, Democrats will likely have to put more effort into making the connection. A November poll found the president 15 points underwater in Nevada while Lombardo was 2 points underwater.
— Eric Neugeboren
Mini Series
💰Dark money — Service First Fund, the pro-Lombardo nonprofit that grew out of his inaugural committee, received more than $3.3 million in contributions in 2024, nearly three times what it did the year before, according to its latest 990. It spent $1.2 million on mail and printing and $936,000 on digital advertising — more than $2 million of which went to the GOP firm Majority Strategies.
- Meanwhile, the 990 from Democratic dark money group Nevada Alliance revealed the organization brought in a whopping $19.2 million in contributions in 2024, far more than the $3.7 million it raised in the prior off-year. It distributed millions to a wide array of liberal political organizations.
⛔All things must end — Clark County School Board Trustee Lydia Dominguez (R) ended her bid in Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District. The congressional campaign of “carnivore lawyer” Chris Brandlin (R), who was running in the same district, is also dead meat; he said the Nevada Republican Party asked him to run for the Legislature instead, and he is now competing in AD-42. Data analyst Alex Pereszlenyi (D), who was running in NV-01, has decided to run for Assembly as well, making a bid in AD-29.
- Reminder: Filing opens on March 2.
📝Whipple update — After we reported that rancher Cody Whipple (R) was briefly registered to vote in Clark County in early 2024, the NV-04 candidate — who touts his roots in tiny Hiko — told The Indy that his registration there was due to an inadvertent change made when he renewed his driver’s license. According to Whipple, the Department of Motor Vehicles altered his voter registration to match his mailing address, which is located in Las Vegas. In February, he changed it back. We also confirmed his voting history over the past 20 years, which showed that he voted there in every general election but 2014, with the Lincoln County clerk.
📫Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) introduced a bill that would make it more difficult to move mail processing operations from Reno to Sacramento, stressing the importance of maintaining reliable service in rural areas. The bill comes after the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) in 2024 announced plans to have all mail destined for Reno first go through Sacramento, which is over an occasionally impassable mountain range. It prompted widespread concerns about what it could mean for mail ballots, and the USPS then dropped the plan. Recently, though, some mail has been going through Sacramento, which the Postal Service said was because of equipment malfunctions.
🧑⚖️You be the judge — The filing period for judicial candidates ended on Friday. Look out for a rundown soon from senior reporter Howard Stutz.
— Mini Racker and Eric Neugeboren
Looking Ahead
- Saturday, Jan. 31 — The DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee meets in San Juan, Puerto Rico, to begin considering applications for early 2028 primaries
- Saturday, Jan. 31 — Federal candidates must file year-end financial disclosures
A post that caught our eye:
A project for The Boring Company?
We’ll see you in two weeks. Interested in more newsletters from The Nevada Independent? Find all of them here.