The ballot question backed by Gov. Joe Lombardo (R) to limit transgender participation in school sports will not be on the November ballot. 

The governor announced Friday on social media that the proposal would not move forward because "legal delays and uncertainty surrounding this case have made it impossible to complete the initiative process in time for the 2026 ballot."

The deadline to submit about 150,000 signatures to qualify the question for the 2026 ballot was next week. The governor's campaign had previously declined to disclose how many signatures had been gathered.

The governor's announcement came one day after the Nevada Supreme Court ruled the ballot question was legally sound. Lombardo said he intends to bring it forward in the 2027 legislative session, where it would likely face steep opposition in a Democratic-controlled Legislature. If lawmakers do not agree to take up the proposal, Lombardo said he would push for the question to land on the 2028 ballot. 

"Female athletes deserve a permanent solution that protects female athletics," Lombardo said in the statement. 

The proposal would have limited transgender athletes to sports based on their assigned sex at birth and required entities overseeing school sports to categorize them as male, female or coeducational. Lombardo was behind the initiative and previously described it as part of his "game plan" to secure re-election by getting people out to vote, according to audio obtained by The Nevada Independent.

It's unclear if there are any transgender student athletes in Nevada, and if so, how many. Last year, the organization overseeing high school sports in Nevada — which does not track the number of transgender athletes — changed its policy to limit participation to a student's assigned birth sex, as did the NCAA.

Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford (D), who is running for governor, said in a statement that "Lombardo lost what he called his 'vote getter,'" and that the governor's "abysmal" tenure "will cost him reelection."

In a statement Friday, Bradley Schrager, the lawyer in the legal effort to block the ballot question who had argued before the Nevada Supreme Court earlier this month that the question was legally deficient, called Lombardo's efforts "cowardly and disgraceful" and lambasted the "hatred this Governor wanted to stoke because he thought it would get him votes."

"I am happy to see the pathetic failure of this bigoted project," he said. "This will never, ever be part of the Nevada Constitution."

Updated on 6/19/26 at 3:37 p.m. to add a statement from Attorney General Aaron Ford.