Nevada 2026 Election & Infrastructure Intelligence

# Nevada 2026 Elections and Infrastructure Overview ## Election structure Nevada held its primary on June 9, 2026. The general election is November 3, 2026. Nevada has no U.S. Senate contest this cycle. ## Principal statewide contests - Governor: Joe Lombardo (Republican) vs. Aaron Ford (Democratic) vs. Danielle Ford (No Political Party) - Lieutenant Governor: Stavros Anthony (Republican) vs. Sandra Jauregui (Democratic) - Secretary of State: Francisco "Cisco" Aguilar (Democratic) vs. Jim Marchant (Republican) - Attorney General: Nicole Cannizzaro (Democratic) vs. Adriana Guzman Fralick (Republican) - Treasurer: Tya Mathis-Coleman (Democratic) vs. Drew Johnson (Republican) ## Federal contests - NV-01: Dina Titus (D) vs. Carrie Buck (R) - NV-02: Teresa Benitez-Thompson (D) vs. David Flippo (R) - NV-03: Susie Lee (D) vs. Marty O'Donnell (R) - NV-04: Steven Horsford (D) vs. Cody Whipple (R) ## Praevoium planning stakes Nevada is one of the fastest-growing data-center markets in the country. DRI reports approximately 713 MW operating and more than 5,900 MW planned. NV Energy's expected load growth is being driven heavily by AI and hyperscale facilities, with major implications for generation, transmission, clean-energy compliance, water use, and consumer rates. Nevada law continues to provide partial tax abatements for qualifying data centers. The state has not enacted a comprehensive large-load cost-allocation and water-reporting framework that clearly resolves all cost-shifting concerns. NV Energy's Clean Transition Tariff is intended to support large loads, but regulators and intervenors have questioned whether it fully protects ordinary ratepayers. ## Core fault lines 1. Whether data-center tax abatements should continue without new statewide guardrails. 2. Whether developers should finance all generation, transmission, and distribution upgrades attributable to their projects. 3. Whether water use, peak demand, backup generation, and projected buildout should

Race	Status	Candidates	Impact	Key issue
Governor	See research	See candidate dossiers	Medium	Infrastructure and policy impact

# Nevada Race and Candidate Dossiers ## Governor ### Joe Lombardo - Republican - Incumbent - **Data-center posture:** Conditional - **AI posture:** Enable - **Evidence confidence:** High - Supports data centers as part of Nevada's economic-growth strategy. - Supports added natural-gas pipeline capacity serving northern Nevada growth, including data centers. - States that expansion should not raise rates for families or businesses and that water impacts must be managed. - Supports Western transmission expansion and faster permitting under an all-of-the-above energy strategy. - Has not endorsed the requested freeze on tax abatements for federal-land data centers. ### Aaron Ford - Democratic - Attorney General - **Data-center posture:** Conditional - **AI posture:** Conditional - **Evidence confidence:** High - Proposes requiring data centers to pay for the power they consume and the additional grid infrastructure needed to serve them. - Says large AI loads should not transfer costs to existing ratepayers. - Previously helped sponsor Nevada's 2015 data-center incentive legislation. - Has not committed to continuing or pausing current tax abatements, citing the need for more facts. ### Danielle Ford - No Political Party - **Data-center posture:** Unverified - **AI posture:** Unverified - **Evidence confidence:** Low - No sufficiently specific public position located for this checkpoint. ## U.S. House District 1 ### Dina Titus - Democratic - Incumbent - **Data-center posture:** Pause - **AI posture:** Conditional - **Evidence confidence:** High - Asked Governor Lombardo to pause tax abatements for data centers on federal land until the 2027 Legislature reviews the issue. - Cited water supply, extreme heat, grid resilience, community input, and environmental-review concerns surrounding the Boulder City-area project. ### Carrie Buck - Republican - **Data-center posture:** Unverified - **AI posture:** Unverified - **Evidence confidence:** Low - No direct, sufficiently specific data-center posture verified. ## U.S. House District 2 ### Teresa Benitez-Thompson - Democratic - **Data-center posture:** Unverified - **AI posture:** Unverified - **Evidence confidence:** Low - Infrastructure relevance includes northern Nevada growth, Reno-Sparks logistics, water, geothermal, mining, transmission, and the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center. ### David Flippo - Republican - **Data-center posture:** Enable - **AI posture:** Enable - **Evidence confidence:** Moderate - Campaigns on energy independence, tax reduction, national defense, and accelerated economic development. - Direct project-specific water or cost-allocation conditions were not verified; classification reflects broad support for energy and industrial expansion. - Backed by President Donald Trump in the primary. ## U.S. House District 3 ### Susie Lee - Democratic - Incumbent - **Data-center posture:** Conditional - **AI posture:** Conditional - **Evidence confidence:** Moderate - District priorities in

# Nevada Research Gaps and Refresh Rules ## Daily refresh - Verify certified general-election candidate lists and any withdrawals or minor-party additions. - Update governor and NV-03 polling averages and label sponsor, field dates, sample type, and methodology. - Refresh campaign-finance totals from Nevada and FEC filings. - Track Public Utilities Commission filings involving large-load tariffs, the Clean Transition Tariff, NV Energy integrated-resource plans, and data-center interconnections. - Track the 2027 legislative agenda on water reporting, tax abatements, federal-land projects, cost allocation, and local authority. - Monitor Nye, Lyon, Storey, Clark, and Washoe County land-use and water actions. ## Evidence rules - Use direct statements, official plans, votes, letters, filings, or documented project positions. - Do not infer a candidate's posture solely from party affiliation. - Broad economic-development language without data-center specificity may support an Enable classi