| This is a press release dated September 3, 2026 Earlier this week, Attorney General Aaron Ford went on Pod Save America and spoke with Tommy Vietor about how as Governor he will fight for the entirety of the Nevada family, crack down on data centers, keep pushing Big Tech companies to enact protections that keep children safe online, and end the cost-of-living crisis created by Joe Lombardo and Donald Trump. Ford also responded to Lombardo saying he can’t control affordability, blaming high unemployment on Nevadans being lazy, invoking his name to try and dodge a traffic ticket, gushing that he’s “wholeheartedly in support of data centers,” and saying Nevadans need to “feel a little pain” over Trump’s tariffs. Ford highlighted how despite Lombardo spending $37 million derived from his big money and data center donors, Ford and Lombardo are statistically tied in the race for Nevada Governor. As we head towards November, the Nevada Governor’s race will be one of the most hotly contested and closest midterm races in America, serving as a referendum on Trump’s cost-raising agenda. WATCH HERE: Attorney Aaron Ford on Pod Save America HIGHLIGHTS: On Lombardo claiming he can’t control affordability and saying anyone who says they can is full of BS: What I think is BS is that he vetoed a bill that would have put $1,000 back in parents’ pockets per child, per year – when he vetoed a bill for guaranteed school lunch for our children. What’s BS is when he vetoed a bill that would have limited the amount you could pay for prescription drugs, putting money back in people’s pockets. You see, these are the types of things that he could have done that we could be experiencing relief from right now. This affordability crisis wouldn’t be as dire right now if he had aligned himself with the people of the state, as opposed to the corporations that are bankrolling his campaign.I was talking to a young lady in Minden, Nevada. And she was telling me she was grocery shopping and she had a basket full of groceries, went over to the pharmacy to pick up her prescription, looked at the price and prescription, and left her groceries in the aisle because she couldn’t afford both. You see, that bill [Lombardo] vetoed – that would have limited prescription drug costs – could have helped her. On Lombardo collaborating with ICE and how he will stand up to Trump’s rogue agency: Our governor has committed the human resource of our National Guard members to help ICE do their job. And what I have heard, and what I have said, is that people want our state resources – whether they are human, financial, or otherwise – to be spent on state stuff, period. They want us spending our money and our time and our resources on education, on mental health issues, on infrastructure, on things that are helping Nevadans and not doing the job of someone else. When I’m governor, we’re going to spend our state resources on state stuff, not doing someone else’s job. On suing Big Tech companies including Meta to win first-of-their-kind online child safety protections: Now we’re going to get opportunities for children to have better mental health outcomes, parents to have more control. [Children] won’t be able to get notifications during school hours anymore. They’re going to limit their ability to be on these apps from midnight to six. They got rid of the filters that were causing so many self-image issues. And so parents have a lot more control. We get to protect our children and I’m very proud of that.[In response to Tommy mentioning Congress’s gridlock on this issue] I’m not one to sit back and wait for somebody else to do something. If I have to protect my family – and I consider the state of Nevada my family – then I’m going to do it. I’m not waiting for others. On cracking down on data centers and ending Joe Lombardo’s gravy train: And what I have found, having spoken to Nevadans across two statewide tours in the last ten months or so, is that it doesn’t matter who I’m talking to – Democrats, Republicans or Independents – everybody has a problem with these data centers coming in, taking up our energy, driving up our energy prices and draining our water. And they want us to do something. I am going to halt every single future abatement on data centers until we can actually go back and do something that this current governor has not done – audit the compliance with the terms and agreements in the first place.I’ve said they’re not going to be able to raise consumer rates by one penny. They’re going to have to use clean energy, their own clean energy to power their facilities and build out the grid to accommodate that. And not only that, listen to local input before things are done. If a local community doesn’t want these data centers, it shouldn’t be forced on them. And it seems to me that we currently have a governor who doesn’t really care about local input – in fact has described this data center issue as a gold rush for Nevada. And what I noticed, Tommy, is the only gold rushing right now is from the big data center folks to his pockets.Lombardo aligned himself with Trump in advocating for data centers, saying that he’s wholeheartedly in support of them. See, I’m wholeheartedly in support of Nevadans – and that’s why I’m being responsive to what I’ve heard across every demographic, that we need to address these. Trump is wrong for ignoring the will of the people, Lombardo is wrong for doing the same, and I’m going to be a governor who listens. On the impact of Trump’s Canadian tariffs in Nevada: The fact of the matter is, we are living in the Lombardo-Trump economy. Joe Lombardo has advocated for [Trump’s] tariffs, essentially saying that we need to feel a little pain from them. And I say we don’t need to feel pain. We need some leadership.We do rely upon tourism. Canadian, Mexican, Chinese, those tourists have stopped coming, right. And at the end of the day, it has negatively impacted businesses and employment all across our state, you know, so I sued over those tariffs.Our governor said that my lawsuit was unfortunate. All my lawsuits against the Trump administration – the ones that I keep winning by upwards of 85 to 90%, by the way – he calls unfortunate. Again, it’s because he’s kowtow, kissed up and capitulated to Donald Trump. Lying Lombardo is what they call him. On how his background enables him to relate to Nevadans struggling with costs: I think about this from a personal perspective, though, Tommy – I grew up eating stale candy bars for dinner. You know, my daddy used to work at a grocery store, and he found some stale candy bars at the dumpster behind the grocery store where he worked. Safeway was throwing these candies away because they were stale and they couldn’t sell them. But the Fords gotta eat – so my dad brought home these stale candy bars. And I keep a candy bar from that era on my desk, at home, on my nightstand, on my desk at work as a visual reminder every single day of what struggle looks like.I can empathize with people who are saying that they’re having a tough time surviving, let alone trying to thrive right now. I went from eating stale candy bars, Tommy, to becoming a single dad when I was in college, living on Section 8 housing, living on food stamps. They called it SNAP now – they got a fancy card. I had the fake money you had to tear out the little book. I was on food stamps. I was on Medicaid. That’s what kept my son and me healthy. And so I have a very real understanding of what poverty and struggle looks like. And that’s why I fight every single day to ensure that everyone has the ability to to survive in our state. On fighting to regulate online prediction markets like Kalshi and protect Nevada’s industries: Donald Trump Jr. doesn’t scare me. No one scares me when it comes to protecting Nevadans, which is the reason why I have actually led the fight against these prediction markets.I know personally of young boys who are under the age of 21, who have engaged in gambling and sports betting using these apps – and they have spent up their college loans, you understand. They are some of the victims that we’re trying to protect. On Lombardo using his name to get out of a traffic ticket: People can watch this for themselves, right – they can make their own judgment. And I think most folks I speak to – 99.9% of folks – recognize that Joe Lombardo dropped his name in order to try to avoid a consequence, right? Lombardo intimidated [the cop], of course, and utilized his name to do that. And look, that’s what we saw on camera. Imagine how this man acts when no one’s actually being able to gauge how he’s interacting with other folks, right?We can’t trust him. He already thinks that he’s above everybody, as you can tell by the way he interacts with [the cop]. We also know how he feels about Nevadans, generally speaking. We’ve had one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation under his entire three year, eight month tenure – we’ve had the highest or one of the highest unemployment rates his entire tenure. It’s higher now than when he took office. But he has a theory for that. He says it’s because people are lazy and they don’t want to work. And they’d rather depend upon the government instead of taking a job that’s available to them. That’s what he says. That’s how he thinks about the people who he supposedly represents.And so him abusing his authority is yet another example of him just thinking he’s better, different, set apart, and not representing the working class members of our state, instead aligning himself with his billionaire friends. On how he’s winning this race despite Lombardo’s billionaire donors: Look, this race was always going to be about the money versus the many.Rich people [are] dropping in [for Lombardo]. You know, people who own data centers, right? People who donated Flock cameras. These are people who are supporting him as he unfurls $17 million of negative ads against me – which, by the way, haven’t really moved the needle. We are in a tie ballgame right now. We’re going to win because we have the many on our side. |
| ### https://www.fordfornevada.com/news/watch-ford-goes-on-pod-save-america-to-talk-about-how-hell-fight-for-nevadans?source=918024c8-3201-4d86-b306-046db145c4a3 |
Tag: Nevada
Horsford: Pausing SNAP Despite Emergency Fund is a Choice
This is a press release issued on October 30, 2025
Lawmaker Urges Administration to Protect SNAP Recipients Immediately
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Steven Horsford (NV-04) today sent a letter to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins urging her to use the $6 billion contingency fund for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) before benefits end on November 1st for more than 42 million vulnerable Americans.
“As we enter the holiday season, House Republicans are on their fifth week of a taxpayer-funded vacation and America’s largest food assistance program is about to shut down,” Rep. Horsford said. “Congress created the contingency fund to prevent this exact crisis – the administration’s ongoing refusal to use it contradicts Congressional intent and worsens food insecurity for half-a-million Nevadans who depend on SNAP. The politics of incompetence and cruelty must end. When Trump and Republicans control all branches of government, this isn’t merely an unfortunate series of events – this is their plan.”
Congress created the SNAP contingency fund to ensure operations could continue during lapses in appropriations. Both the Government Accountability Office and prior shutdown contingency plans – including one issued during President Trump’s previous administration – affirm that these funds are legally available to pay benefits during a lapse in appropriations.
Key letter excerpt:
A lapse in benefits would harm one in eight Americans – and in my home state of Nevada, one in six. Such a failure would not only endanger already hungry households but would also send shockwaves through entire communities. Yet, despite having both the clear statutory authority and the available funding to provide relief, your Department has chosen to withhold these critical benefits at the direction of President Trump. I am deeply concerned by your refusal to release the funds necessary to sustain SNAP beginning November 1, 2025.
The threat to SNAP comes as the program is already experiencing deep cuts as a result of the Republican’s “Big Beautiful” bill in July. Approximately 4 million people in a typical month will lose some or all of their SNAP food benefits once the GOP’s changes are fully implemented, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
On October 24th, Rep. Horsford led a letter to Governor Lombardo signed by his fellow Nevada Congressional Democrats, Reps. Titus (NV-01) and Lee (NV-03), urging he do everything within his power, including calling for a Special Session of the Legislature, to protect SNAP recipients.
Nevada’s Attorney General, Aaron Ford, has also pushed to protect SNAP recipients in the Silver State. Earlier this week, he joined 25 other Attorneys General in a lawsuit to force the Trump administration to use SNAP’s emergency fund.
Full text of Rep. Horsford’s letter to Secretary Rollins is available here.
After Cyberattack Hamstrings Emergency Services and Nevadans’ Labor Day Travel Plans, Lombardo Waits Five Days to Address Public
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