According to a report in the Las Vegas Review-Journal (RJ), Attorney General Aaron Ford (D) intends to run for governor of the state of Nevada in 2026. Ford was elected as Nevada’s Attorney General in 2019. A former State Senator, AG Ford previously served as both the Majority Leader and the Minority Leader in the Nevada State Legislature and held leadership roles on several legislative committees.

Ford told the RJ: “I do intend to seek higher office, and I have been having informal conversations with people across the state to better understand what they believe Nevada needs in its next governor,” Ford said in a statement. “These discussions are an important part of determining how I can best serve our state.”

After President Trump resoundingly won the state of Nevada and the presidency, Ford released a statement in resistance to the incoming Trump administration’s mass deportation plan of criminal illegal aliens. “My office stands ready for the alternative, and we will be a bulwark against any effort to impose unconstitutional mandates, override our system of checks and balances, or intrude upon the rights of any Nevada resident,” adding, “There is no one way to be a “Nevadan. The residents of our great state -whether they’ve been here for 3 weeks or are third- generation Nevadans.”

In contrast, Governor Joe Lombardo (R) has aligned with 25 Republican governors to unite behind President Trump’s mass deportation policy which primarily targets illegal immigrants who pose a threat to American communities and national security.

In a joint statement, the governors expressed their commitment to “deport dangerous criminals, gang members, and terrorists who are in the country illegally.”

The anticipated race between former Clark County Sheriff Governor Lombardo and AG Ford will be a stark contrast in policy related to their approach to crime and public safety.

In 2019, Ford was “intimately involved” with “landmark” criminal justice reform bill AB 236 that the Democratic majority passed and former Governor Steve Sisolak signed into law. AB 236 was designed with the intention to reduce the prison population through various changes to the penal code in relation to sentencing, bail, probation, drug offenses and felony categories and convictions. In part, AB 236 decreased the penalties on drug trafficking and increased the amount of methamphetamine and fentanyl possession.

Since the bills passage, the Silver State has seen a 15 percent increase in property crimes and a staggering 39 percent increase in drug-store thefts on the Las Vegas Strip. The bill raised the threshold for felony theft from $600 worth of stolen goods to $1,200, which is higher than the threshold of $950 in California. A criminal who steals up to $1,200 worth of goods will be charged with misdemeanor larceny instead of a category D felony.

Washoe County District Attorney Chris Hicks publicly stated that AB 236 “rubber-stamped” drug use. During a presentation given early this year, Hicks warned that “Nevada is on its way to becoming California” and directly tied the legislation to data that demonstrated a significant spike in crime across the second-largest county in Nevada.

Hicks further noted that Deobra Redden, a habitual felon who went viral for leaping over a Las Vegas judge’s bench and attempted to murder her, had multiple violent felonies on his record at the time of the attack, but did not meet the seven-felony threshold mandated by the “landmark” legislation. Hicks warned that Redden was “symbolic” of the dire consequences of AB 236 and a “product of the bail reform movement.”

Last Tuesday, Redden was sentenced to 26 to 65 years for the violent attack on Judge Mary Kay Holthus.