Governor’s race: Poll shows Lombardo, Ford in virtual tie as both hit with complaints

Nevada voters were evenly split in the 2026 governor’s race as a new poll shows a virtual tie between incumbent Gov. Joe Lombardo and challenger Attorney General Aaron Ford.

The Emerson College poll, published Friday, surveyed 800 voters in the state between Sunday and Tuesday, during the recent special session.

Each candidate’s support stood at 41 percent, with 18 percent of respondents saying they remained undecided, according to the poll.

“Lombardo holds an eight-point lead among independents, though 40 (percent) remain undecided,” Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, said in a statement. “Ford’s strengths are among Hispanic voters, who back him by 16 points, and women, who break for the Attorney General by five points.”

The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percent.

Results arrived the same month both candidates were hit with mirroring complaints for alleged violations of ethics and election integrity.

The four complaints — all but one of them filed this week — had not been widely publicized.

Lombardo and Ford were accused in complaints filed with the Nevada Commission on Ethics of allegedly politicking on their official X accounts by linking to their personal accounts, which they use to campaign.

And competing political party representatives lodged complaints with the Nevada secretary of state’s office, alleging that the candidates campaigned during the special session blackout by keeping online fundraising portals open.

Lombardo and Ford’s offices and campaigns said they’d taken steps to remediate the alleged offenses.

Candidates pledge donation refunds

The Nevada Democratic Party accused Lombardo’s campaign with the secretary of state’s office for allegedly “soliciting” donations during the special session, when campaigning is not legally allowed.

The complaint points to a Lombardo “WinRed” portal — a website that helps Republicans fundraise — that remained active as late as this week, according to the filing.

“We have not solicited or accepted any funds during the blackout period,” wrote Lombardo’s campaign spokesperson Halee Dobbins. “If anything were ever received during this period it would be returned immediately. We take following the law seriously.”

Clark County Republican Party Chair Jill Douglass said Monday that she had filed a similar complaint against Ford.

That one accused Ford’s campaign of sending an automated fundraising email the morning after Lombardo proclaimed the special session, and of still having an active fundraising link active about an hour after the message.

Democrats’ fundraising arm took “full responsibility” for the alleged violation.

In a statement, “ActBlue” said it had “corrected the error within hours and disabled the account.”

Ford’s campaign also shared emails of it informing the contractor about the blackout before the special session, asking it to disable fundraising links before its start.

The campaign asked ActBlue to return any donations made during that period.

Social media posts scrutinized

Dueling complaints with the ethics commission center around staff from the candidates’ official offices hyperlinking the candidates’ personal X accounts on posts where they conduct official business.

Bernard Zadrowski, retired Clark County chief deputy district attorney and a one-time chairman of the county’s Republican Party, lodged a complaint against Ford earlier this month, pointing to more than 100 alleged violations.

“Once our office was made aware of the concern, I immediately stopped tagging Attorney General Ford’s personal account,” office spokesperson John Sadler wrote in a statement at the time.

On Wednesday, left-leaning “End Citizens United” followed suit, accusing Lombardo of doing the same thing.

That complaint pointed to posts on one of the governor’s outreach social media accounts that tagged his personal account a few times, and once reposted a pro-Lombardo PAC.

“The Lombardo Outreach X account is managed by the constituent services staff and is intended to highlight events attended by members of the Governor’s Office,” governor’s office spokesperson Elizabeth Ray wrote earlier this month.

“Two posts were mistakenly tagged with the campaign handle, and internal measures have been implemented to ensure this does not happen again,” she added.

The ethics board said it couldn’t confirm or deny receiving the complaint lodged against Ford. The committee did not respond to a message seeking comment this week.

The eight-member ethics board examines alleged conflicts of interest of public officials as dictated by state law.

A review panel would determine if there’s “sufficient cause” to issue an opinion, which would then be published on the commission’s website. The complaints hadn’t reached that stage Thursday.

Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com.