Lead Senate Democrat Cannizzaro to run for Nevada AG

Nicole Cannizzaro, the top Democrat in the Nevada Senate, will run for attorney general in 2026, she announced Tuesday.

The current Senate majority leader and a former prosecutor, Cannizzaro said she is running to “make Nevada safer and stronger,” she said in an interview. She said she was inspired to run because of her efforts in the Legislature to expand reproductive rights, address housing costs and protect consumers.

“The attorneys general in this country are on the front lines of fighting back against government overreach and protecting those very same rights and freedoms,” Cannizzaro said.

She joins Nevada Treasurer Zach Conine in the expected Democratic primary for the office. Candidates cannot file until March next year.

She was first elected to the Senate in 2016 and was the first woman to serve as majority leader beginning in 2019. She seeks to replace Democratic Attorney General Aaron Ford, who intends to run for governor.

Cannizzaro was most recently re-elected to a four-year term in the Senate in 2024. She works at a personal injury law firm and previously worked in the Clark County district attorney’s office for more than a decade, including a stint prosecuting gangs.

Cannizzaro said she sets herself apart from other candidates because of her criminal prosecution experience.

She is a native of Las Vegas and an alumna of University of Nevada, Reno, and the UNLV Boyd School of Law. In the Nevada Senate, Cannizzaro represents parts of the western Las Vegas Valley, where she lives with her husband and three sons.

Cannizzaro’s parents moved to Las Vegas before she was born for work in the hospitality industry as a bartender and a waitress. She graduated from Chaparral High School and received the Guinn Millennium Scholarship, helping pay a portion of her UNR tuition, she said.

Those experiences taught her the value of education and investing in the community.

“So much of that is why I entered public service in the first instance and ran for the Senate,” she said. “It’s why I have fought so hard in the Senate for things like education funding, for making sure people can afford things like health care, for making sure that working families can get ahead. Those are things that I know helped a kid like me to have the opportunity to succeed.”

Cannizzaro’s campaign announcement included endorsements from union chapters representing government employees, trade workers and firefighters.

Danny Tarkanian, son of famed UNLV basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian and a Douglas County commissioner, announced his intention to run for attorney general as a Republican in May.

Contact McKenna Ross at mross@reviewjournal.com. Follow @mckenna_ross_ on X.