Ford’s 90-Minute Case Against Lombardo Doesn’t Survive Fact-Checking

Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford sat down with Jon Ralston for a lengthy interview and treated the governor’s race like a grievance session. He declared grocery prices the nation’s highest, dismissed thousands of new jobs as work that “can’t sustain a livelihood,” recast a corrected budget proposal as an unconstitutional deficit, shrunk a historic education investment to “$2 per student,” and blamed Gov. Joe Lombardo for an independent utility decision made largely by commissioners appointed by a Democratic predecessor.

Ralston repeatedly interrupted him. The record does the rest.

Ford said, “We pay the highest grocery costs in the nation.” That is false.

Ralston corrected him in real time, noting that available studies place Nevada roughly between 10th and 20th—not first. Ford could not name a source. Some analyses have ranked Nevada as high as fourth in annual grocery spending, and during the Biden-Harris years the state ranked among the most expensive for weekly grocery costs. None of that makes it first. Inflating a real pressure point into a national championship is campaign math, not data.

Ford then argued Lombardo should recruit “good-paying jobs—not the ones that he’s creating right now that can’t sustain a livelihood.”

Federal labor data show Nevada added 36,700 jobs from June 2025 to June 2026, a 2.3% increase. Las Vegas added about 33,500 jobs, or 2.9% growth—one of the strongest showings among major metros. Under Lombardo, the state has added more than 100,000 new jobs across tech, construction, and hospitality. The Las Vegas Review-Journal noted that Nevada’s job creation has outpaced California’s under Gavin Newsom. Dismissing those paychecks because they do not fit a campaign narrative is not an economic argument. It is an insult to the people collecting them.

On the budget, Ford claimed Lombardo “can’t submit to the Legislature a constitutionally balanced budget” and presented a “$335 million deficit.”

The initial executive proposal contained a forecasting and allocation shortfall. It was a proposed budget, not the enacted one. The administration submitted corrections before lawmakers passed the constitutionally required balanced budget. Original reporting already noted that revisions had reduced the identified gap. Conflating a draft with the law is a lawyer’s trick, not a governor’s record.

Education received the same treatment. Ford said families got “a $2 per-pupil expenditure increase year-over-year.” False.

Lombardo secured the largest education investment in Nevada history. The 2023 budget increased funding by about $2.6 billion over the biennium and raised per-pupil funding by more than $2,500 in fiscal year 2025—more than 25%. The subsequent executive recommendation increased overall Pupil-Centered Funding Plan spending by about 3%. The Nevada Department of Education called the package historic. Cherry-picking one slice of a funding formula while ignoring billions for students and teachers is not analysis. It is a talking point.

Then came the furniture.

Ford said Lombardo “went on to spend $25 million on office furniture.” The money covered furniture, fixtures, and equipment to relocate about 6,000 state employees into newly acquired state buildings and reduce expensive leased space. It was not a personal redecorating project. Reporting at the time documented the administration’s defense: the project saved taxpayers hundreds of millions while upgrading workspaces, including offices used by Ford’s own staff. Reducing a statewide facilities move to “office furniture” only works if voters never hear the rest of the sentence.

Ford also claimed “your governor has failed to audit” data-center companies receiving tax abatements.

Nevada’s agreements require audits by the Department of Taxation in consultation with the Governor’s Office of Economic Development at the two-, five-, eight-, and 10-year marks. GOED publishes compliance results in legislative reports. Ford is attacking the enforcement framework in the incentive law he helped create.

On water, he said data centers are “taking our water.” He offered no evidence that every facility is depleting community supplies. Ralston noted that many use closed-loop systems that sharply reduce ongoing demand. Ford conceded that only “some” do not. Water use is project-specific. A statewide smear is not a water policy.

Ford called an independently approved utility rate structure “Joe Lombardo’s demand charge” and said it would raise energy costs on families. The Public Utilities Commission approved the structure. Two of the three commissioners involved were appointed by former Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak. Ford presented no evidence that Lombardo directed the vote and, when pressed, said he would “leave it there.” The record also found that nonsolar customers—about 90 percent of residential customers—had been paying more than their fair share under the old structure.

On Medicaid, Ford said federal legislation is “going to kick 100,000 folks off.”

The figure is a state projection based on future assumptions: work requirements, eligibility reviews, individual behavior, and possible waivers. Reporting described people who “could” lose coverage, not a confirmed mass expulsion. Work, volunteer, and education options exist inside the eligibility rules. A conditional estimate is not a body count.

Finally, Ford said Nevada faces an “affordability crisis that Lombardo has created.”

He offered no evidence that one governor invented nationwide inflation, federal tariffs, interest-rate hikes, or pandemic-era housing shortages. Meanwhile Nevada recorded some of the nation’s strongest job growth, more than 100,000 new jobs, $6 billion in new investment, and the repeal of roughly 900 burdensome regulations.

The Lombardo campaign’s verdict was blunt: “Aaron Ford spent 90 minutes twisting the facts and pushing empty rhetoric, but even Jon Ralston repeatedly stopped him when the facts did not add up. When Ford’s arguments fall apart, he exaggerates or simply lies. Between his failed track record, his $18 billion agenda that will bankrupt Nevadans, and his failure to show up to work for 420+ days, Ford is not a serious candidate and is unfit for a promotion.”

Affordability is a real fight. Inventing rankings, erasing job gains, shrinking a historic school budget, and pinning independent regulators on a Republican governor is not how you win it. It is how you hope no one checks.