Press Release Issued by the Nevada Democratic Party on August 29, 2025
While Nevadans still can’t access essential services like applying for food benefits and renewing vehicle registrations, Joe Lombardo was sipping wine with campaign donors. Despite Lombardo making his law enforcement background his entire campaign, he couldn’t face Nevadans as Nye County police were unable to dispatch state police officers when residents called 911. While this partial government shutdown drags on and Nevadans’ Labor Day plans are disrupted, Lombardo continues to prove over and over that he is unfit to lead the state in crisis.
Here’s the rundown of the last six days: After hackers stole Nevada state data, Lombardo ditched his own press conference on the cyberattack for a campaign event, prompting widespread backlash about his lack of leadership in this statewide crisis. Then, Lombardo tried to do damage control, holding another press conference less than 24 hours later to paper over his absence. Instead of reassuring Nevadans about this massive data breach, No Show Joe spent the press conference trying to defend his absence and dodging questions. After throwing a temper tantrum at the podium, Lombardo fled to a county club for another campaign event and Nevadans still have zero answers on what happened and when many key essential services will reopen.
Here’s what people are saying about Lombardo’s lack of leadership during this dangerous cyberattack:
Print
Fox Reno: Gov. Lombardo hosts press conference on cyber attack after missing Wednesday’s conference
Fox 5 Vegas: Was personal information stolen? Nevada Governor discusses cyberattack for first time publicly
ABC 13: We brought your worries about the cyberattack affecting state services directly to Gov. Joe Lombardo
Las Vegas Review-Journal: Sluggish outlook may lead to drop in Labor Day weekend visits to Las Vegas
Las Vegas Review-Journal: Nevada governor defends absence, calls cyberattack his most serious crisis
ABC 13: Gov. Lombardo defends handling of Nevada cyberattack crisis
3 News: What could be the political fallout from Lombardo’s press conference absence?
Nevada Current: Cyber attack briefing: Data taken ‘out of network’; lots of assurances; few details; and no governor
Nevada Independent: Nevada targeted in ransomware attack; some data taken out of state, officials say
On the Airwaves
Abel Garcia, Channel 13: “Governor Joe Lombardo facing criticism from a local grassroots group”
Latoya Simon, Channel 3: “One of the questions that people have been asking, is ‘where has Governor Lombardo been during the cyber incident,’ including why he didn’t attend the news conference yesterday in Carson City?”
Nevada Resident Manuel Santamaria, Channel 3: “He should have been there. It’s his priority as the governor of the state of Nevada. This isn’t the biggest state in terms of population. You would think that he has enough of his own time to give to everybody. So I believe his excuses were poor. He should always have that in front of mind, right? Always be out front helping the people of Nevada. And he’s failed to do that time and time again.”
Nye County Sheriff Joe McGill, Fox 5 News: “The dispatchers are having to take as brief of notes as they possibly can in handwriting on a piece of paper, dispatch the unit, they’re having to keep track on another piece of paper of where their units are. It absolutely is an officer safety issue. … Our computer-aided dispatch system shows the GPS location based on the computer in the car. We don’t have that right now. If somebody were to come on the air and scream, I need help, they don’t know where they are.”
Nevada Resident, Channel 3: “I was coming to get food stamps for me and my kids, but the office, I guess their system is down.”
On Social
@ralstonreports: So they held a presser on 4-day-old massive hack of NV government, gave almost no new info and the gov was not there:
“During the question portion….state officials would not provide additional facts that were not already stated in prepared remarks.”
@howardstutz: Lombardo doesn’t want to answer any more questions about his absence at the Wednesday presser:
“I’m here taking care of business, and it never swayed for my responsibility as your governor. This press conference is to provide our current situation.”
@SteveSebelius: Gov. @JosephMLombardo on Thursday defended his handling of the cyber attack against the state, saying he’s been involved in the response since the start despite skipping a Wednesday news conference in Carson City.
@BattleBornProg: While government services are still offline and Nevadans want answers to the cyberattack on our data, Joe Lombardo thinks wine tasting with big business is more important. #NoShowJoe