LAS VEGAS (AP) — Election results trickled in slowly in Nevada, leaving first-term Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak and his challenger, Republican Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo, each predicting the outcome of the Nevada governor's racewouldn't be known for several days — with each man predicting he would win.
"We don't know anything yet," Lombardo told cheering supporters at a Republican party at a Las Vegas casino-resort. He noted he was also marking his 60th birthday, and called the race with Sisolak "razor thin."
The last polling sites in the state closed in Las Vegas and Reno after 9 p.m. Tuesday, and Sisolak soon told election night supporters at the Encore resort on the Las Vegas Strip they could go home because the race was too close to call.
"We said it was going to be close and it is," Sisolak said. "We ask you to please be patient. We need to make sure every single vote is counted. When that job is done, I believe we're going to win this thing."
Now @GovSisolak is talking, he says he knew this was going to be a close race. He says be patient, every vote is needed. He says they knew this would go down to the wire, he believes the votes will be on their side @KTNV pic.twitter.com/vnblwKQFyO
— Joe Moeller (@joemoeller44) November 9, 2022
Lombardo said he anticipated success "in the next couple of days," but told supporters "to be patient."
The campaign was costly and contentious, with airwaves and the internet awash in recent weeks with ads sponsored by the candidates, their parties and political action committees aiming to amplify their differences.
Former President Donald Trump endorsed Lombardo. Key issues in the race included crime and safety; criminal justice and immigration policies; abortion; the economy, inflation, gasoline prices and housing costs; education; and health care and a state-managed public health insurance option.
Sisolak, 68, was chairman of the Clark County Commission before becoming Nevada's first Democratic governor in two decades. He was criticized by some Republicans for closing businesses, schools and casinos during the COVID-19 pandemic, but easily won his party nomination for a second term.
Five years ago, Sisolak praised Lombardo amid the glare of the national spotlight after a gunman killed 58 people at an open-air concert on the Las Vegas Strip. It was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
Sisolak backers pointed during the campaign to crime in Las Vegas during Lombardo's term as sheriff and cited Lombardo's staffing decisions in a department with about 6,000 employees.
As governor, Sisolak signed the public insurance option created last year by the Democratic-led Legislature. He declared that as long as he is governor he'll oppose any attempt to limit the right to an abortion in the first 24 weeks of pregnancy.
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Lombardo, who topped a crowded GOP primary field, derided the public health option with an epithet during one candidates' forum. He said he looks at abortion through a "pro-life lens," but acknowledges that Nevada voters in 1990 approved a referendum allowing the procedure up to 24 weeks.
Lombardo started as a police officer in Las Vegas in 1988 and served two terms as nonpartisan elected Clark County sheriff, the head of the largest police agency in Nevada. He acknowledged that crime has risen in the past two years but blamed funding limits and legislative mandates.
Both candidates said they want to improve education in a state consistently ranked at or near the bottom in funding and performance with high student-to-teacher ratios. Bids to break up the sprawling Clark County School District, with more than 300,000 students, have stalled.
Both said teachers should be paid more. But the powerful teachers union in Clark County, which backed Sisolak in 2018, declined to make any endorsement this election.
In final campaign contribution and expense reports, Sisolak reported spending $13.6 million this year, and Lombardo reported spending $4.8 million. Both reported more than $1 million to spend in the final weeks, and political committees have poured millions more into the race.
