Is this purple state about to go blue?
asserted
state → go → ?
Nevada’s GOP governor faces an anti-Trump backlash
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governor → face → backlash
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- Joe Lombardo is no MAGA warrior, but his Democratic opponent has tied him to the president at every opportunity.
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opponent → click → opportunity
Lombardo hopes Nevada voters will judge him on his performance, not Trump’s.
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voters → hop → performance
Five days after settling back into the White House, President Trump embarked on a political victory lap that took him to a rally in downtown Las Vegas.
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that → settle → Vegas
Joined by Nevada’s Republican governor, Joe Lombardo, Trump told boisterous supporters that, as a first order of business, he’d directed every member of his Cabinet “to marshal all powers at their disposal to defeat inflation and bring down the cost of daily life.”
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he → join → life
That hasn’t happened — not even close — and that failure is one big reason that Nevada’s governor is fighting for his political life.
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governor → happen → life
Democrats, still smarting from their loss four years ago, have made Lombardo their No. 1 gubernatorial target this election season.
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Lombardo → smart → loss
Republicans are battling to keep their top-of-the-ticket foothold in a state that will, once more, stand at the center of the presidential campaign.
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that → battle → campaign
With just over a week to go — and with more than 335,000 ballots already cast — the contest could go either way.
Nevada Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo is running for reelection against Atty. Gen. Aaron Ford.
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Lombardo → go → Ford
Part of Lombardo’s strategy comes from a well-thumbed playbook, tying the Democrat to Newsom and California.
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Part → come → Newsom
After a career in law enforcement and eight years as sheriff of Clark County — home to Las Vegas — Lombardo made the leap to governor in 2022 in a pandemic-fueled backlash against Democratic incumbent Steve Sisolak.
Reserved by nature and a political civilian most of his life, Lombardo has spent the last four years focused on the basics — crime, education, job growth, economic development — and largely steered clear of the country’s incendiary culture wars.
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Lombardo → make → wars
Unlike other Republican lawmakers, Lombardo has also shied away from the provocations and flamboyant pugilism of the MAGA movement.
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Lombardo → shy → movement
Still, Trump hangs like an anvil around Lombardo’s neck — a fact his Democratic opponent, Aaron Ford, exploits at every turn.
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opponent → hang → turn
Appearing last week at a gas station two miles off the Las Vegas Strip, Ford cited record-high fuel prices — and the knock-on effects they’ve had on tourism, groceries and online shopping — and said Nevadans were suffering for no other reason than Trump’s “war of choice” against Iran.
“And where,” Ford asked rhetorically, as traffic whooshed past, “is our current governor?
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governor → appear → Iran
As usual, he’s at Trump’s feet, serving as his doormat.”
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he → ’ → doormat
Ford, who’s bidding to become Nevada’s first Black governor, has one of those up-by-the-bootstraps biographies that campaign consultants see as spun gold.
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consultants → bid → gold
He grew up in Dallas in a family that struggled to stay above water and, as a single father in his early 20s, relied on Medicaid and food stamps to get by.
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that → grow → Medicaid
He worked as a waiter and a teacher to pay for law school and a Ph.D. in education before moving to Nevada in 2007.
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He → work → 2007
After six years in the state Senate, Ford was elected in 2018 to the first of two terms as the state’s attorney general.
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Ford → elect → general
Like Democratic candidates everywhere, Ford has made affordability a key component of his campaign.
Aaron Mahan, who’s spent decades as a server on and off the Strip, says inflation and Trump’s pugnacious immigration and foreign policies have chased tourists away.
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inflation → make → tourists
He’s feeling it in his wallet.
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He → feel → wallet
Standing on the sidewalk outside a Circle K — where regular was going for $5.35 a gallon — Ford squatted to sign a blown-up copy of a “letter” to Trump demanding a $2,000 “pain-at-the-pump” rebate for every Nevada household.
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Ford → stand → household
A line was provided, obligingly but obviously unnecessarily, for Lombardo’s signature.
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line → provide → signature
Four years ago, Ford noted, when gas was around $4.68 a gallon, his Republican rival wrote on social media that hard-pressed Nevadans needed “leadership that ensures our families and businesses are protected from these disastrous policies.”
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families → note → policies
“But once he got in office,” Ford said, Lombardo “stopped fighting for us in Nevada and he started working for Trump full time.”
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he → get → Trump
A few hours later, at a country-themed nightclub in northwest Las Vegas, the governor took to the stage to extol his performance these last four years.
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governor → theme → performance
Small-business creation and job growth are up, he told a crowd of supporters gathered on the dance floor.
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he → tell → floor
Teachers are better paid and more people are working in Nevada than ever before.
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people → pay → Nevada
“Kicking butt,” he said, referring to either himself, Nevada or both; it wasn’t clear which.
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it → kick → himself
Also, Lombardo added, Nevada’s crime rate has fallen for both violent and property crimes — “without any help from the attorney general.”
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rate → add → general
The words “Donald” and “Trump” never passed the governor’s lips.
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words → pass → lips
Lombardo has had a somewhat mixed relationship with the president.
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Lombardo → have → president
He kept his distance during the 2024 campaign and has occasionally, selectively, taken issue with the administration since Trump returned to office.
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Trump → keep → office
The governor, for instance, spoke out against cuts to Medicaid as well as the shuttering of wind and solar projects in Nevada.
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governor → speak → Nevada
But Lombardo didn’t help himself in the least when Trump came to town in August for another rally, this one at the Red Rock Casino.
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Trump → help → Casino
He heaped praise on the president and defended, of all things, the care and feeding of Trump’s plutocratic pals.
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He → heap → pals
“Quite often when the press and the media runs him down, they think about, you know, he’s taking care of his billionaire friends,” Lombardo said.
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Lombardo → run → friends
“Those billionaire friends provide jobs.
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friends → provide → jobs
Unless you take care of them, those jobs are absent.”
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jobs → take → them
…and 23 more, not listed.
The Aporia
