2026Election Stories

With the dust mostly settled from the 2020 election — which saw a record number of votes cast and nearly half submitted through mail or a drop box — Nevada Democrats are now doubling down on mail-in voting.

With a message largely focused on providing better access to health care, immigration reform and helping Nevada rebound from the pandemic-triggered recession, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) officially announced her bid for a second term Wednesday.

Attorneys for the state of Nevada are seeking the dismissal of a lawsuit against the secretary of state regarding voter roll maintenance, asserting that the court does not have jurisdiction over the subject matter and that the plaintiffs have misrepresented the secretary of state's role in maintaining voter rolls.

The bill, AB126, was introduced on Monday in the Assembly, and officially kickstarts the effort by state Democrats to move Nevada up the nominating process ahead of the next presidential election cycle — a move still subject to approval by Democratic National Committee but could mark a major shift in how the country decides presidential nominees.

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nevada) raised more than $1 million in the last three months of 2020, mostly from individual donors, finishing the year with more than $3 million in the bank, according to a filing with the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

More than 140,000 people registered as new voters through Nevada's automatic voter registration (AVR) system since it took effect in January last year, according to a new report.

Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak has reported raising upwards of $2.4 million Wednesday for his re-election bid next year, an amount that roughly doubled the size of his campaign war chest to more than $4.53 million compared to the same time in 2019.

Nevada will again be front and center in the national political conversation, with Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto's Senate seat expected to be one of the top targets for Republicans — Nevada is one of three Democrat-held seats in potentially competitive states (others including New Hampshire and Arizona) up for grabs in 2022.

The lawsuit, which was filed last week in Carson City District Court names three conservative-aligned plaintiffs — former Republican Assemblyman Al Kramer, former Washoe County District Attorney Dick Gammick and prominent Northern Nevada developer Roger Norman — who say their votes were improperly diluted by an alleged failure to keep noncitizens from registering to vote in state elections.

A tweet from President Donald Trump angered Nevada officials Tuesday after the commander-in-chief shared a bogus charge about a Reno hospital and falsely tweeted that Nevada's election laws were "fake."

Though election results are being contested (including a request for a special election in one close state Senate race), a substantial amount of credit for Republican success in down-ballot races is being attributed to a well funded political action committee called "Stronger Nevada PAC."

Aaron Ford will serve alongside DAGA's current co-chair, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, in the group dedicated to supporting Democratic Party candidates in attorney general races across the nation. The group helps fund Democratic candidates and also runs independent ads, including in Ford's narrow 2018 victory over Republican challenger Wes Duncan.

Same-day voter registration and automatic voter registration were two major changes that took effect this year, compounding changes brought on by the pandemic-driven shift toward mail-in voting and making this past election unlike any other in Nevada.

A spokeswoman for the secretary of state's office said it has not received a 45-day update from another group (called "Save Nevada - Recall Steve Sisolak") that also filed an intent to recall the governor on Sept. 3. Another two organizations have registered as a political action committee with the stated intent of recalling Sisolak, but have not yet filed any formal paperwork to do so.

When a voter casts a ballot, then, it doesn't directly count in the presidential election. Instead, the vote is tallied with those of others who live in the same state, and the candidate with the most votes wins what is known as the "popular vote." The designated electors for each state then cast their votes in mid-December. The results from that count determine who becomes president.

For more than a decade, District 3 almost always elected a Republican to Congress. But after two cycles of Democratic victories, have the suburbs so central to District 3's created a new Democratic edge in what was once the state's most competitive swing district?

The Trump campaign and Nevada Republican Party filed a lawsuit Friday requesting a pause in Clark County's mail ballot counting until "proper procedures" for "meaningful observation" are in place.

Nevadans for a Higher Quality Education, a pro-Question 1 super PAC with ties to the business community, reported raising $470,500 in the third quarter, setting the stage for a final campaign push to pass a ballot measure that would remove the Board of Regents from the state Constitution.

Incumbent Democrats no longer universally led the money race in Nevada's most competitive congressional districts, marking the first quarter this election cycle that a Republican — District 3's Dan Rodimer — led all fundraising among the state's congressional hopefuls.

In the absence of a statewide race at the top of Nevada's 2020 ballot, many eyes have fallen to a pair of competitive congressional races that could play a role in deciding which party takes control of the House come November.