Retail Association of Nevada Dumps Lombardo, Endorses Aaron Ford For Governor

Retail Association of Nevada Dumps Lombardo, Endorses Aaron Ford For Governor

RAN President: "We Want a Governor Who's Willing to Fight…Help us Lower Costs"

This week, the Retail Association of Nevada changed course after endorsing Joe Lombardo in 2022 and backed Attorney General Aaron Ford for governor. This is the first time the association has backed a Democrat in recent history, after the Lombardo-Trump agenda has driven up costs, closed businesses, and caused real pain for Nevadans.

The association's president, Bryan Wachter, said, "We want a governor who's willing to fight with us and to help us lower costs and to make it cheaper to actually operate a business in Nevada… We have been disappointed with Lombardo on all those fronts over the last four years."

Read more below about how Nevada business leaders are backing Ford as he takes on Lombardo and Trump's cost-raising agenda to lower prices:

Reno Gazette Journal: Retail Association of Nevada switches to endorse Ford in governor race

• Lombardo's support for President Donald Trump and his tariffs partly influenced the retail association's decision.

• "We understand the governor doesn't have a role in tariffs, but when he comes out and supports a policy that is hurting our small businesses, that is leading to restaurants closing, that is leading to retailers closing and not understanding that there are consequences to those types of policies, that gives us pause," Wachter said.
• "Some of us smaller businesses are not really feeling heard," [John Simmons, owner and chef of Firefly restaurant] said. "The tariffs are hurting us. Our costs of goods are up. Tourism is down."

• Last summer [he] saw his business decrease 15% from the previous year, causing him to cut staff.
• When the retail group went to the governor's office over issues involving retail crime, Wachter said, it didn't get any help but that when it turned to Ford's office, "the attorney general showed up."

Nevada Current: Business group abandons Lombardo in favor of Ford

• "RAN represents more than 8,000 businesses. Wachter said he's aware individual businesses may back Lombardo but said endorsing Ford was the best move for the association. The association cites Ford's participation in legal action that has overturned some of President Donald Trump's tariffs."

• "Governor Lombardo has told us that Nevadans need to feel pain from tariffs," Wachter noted. Nevadans, he said, "can't afford more pain," given the cost of food, prescription drugs and energy.

• RAN made the announcement at Firefly, a Las Vegas restaurant near the Strip. Owner John Simmons said business has plummeted by 15% year-over-year since Trump took office and imposed hefty tariffs.

• "He said that he can't do anything about affordability, and he said that we need to take care of billionaires first because they provide all of the jobs. We don't recognize that kind of leadership."

• Most jobs, Wachter added, are created by small businesses, not billionaires.

Las Vegas Sun: Nevada retailers group, citing high costs and tariffs, abandons Lombardo and backs Ford

• "Gov. Lombardo has told us that Nevadans need to feel pain from tariffs," RAN President Bryan Wachter said. "He said there's nothing the governor can do about affordability."

• Wachter said RAN reached out to both campaigns this election cycle and felt Ford's plans for the economy offered more promise. He pointed to Ford's support for lowering prescription drug costs, reforming credit card swipe fees and regulating data centers as ways to lower costs for retailers.
• Stores could have seen slight relief from rising prescription drug costs with Assembly Bill 259, passed by the 2025 Legislature. The bill would have capped drug prices at federal Medicare rates, but Lombardo vetoed it.

• "Tariffs, trade wars and tourism … those are the three things that are really affecting me," Simmons said.

• Lombardo's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

KTNV: Retail Association of Nevada backs Ford for governor

• The Retail Association of Nevada on Monday endorsed Democratic Attorney General Aaron Ford for governor, saying he'll be better for retail businesses.

• "And so we want to make sure that the person who is setting those policies is doing so with small businesses in mind, with retailers in mind and making sure that we're making the best possible choices that we're making going forward. And when we looked hard at the policies of the last four years and the policies that we're looking forward to in the next four years, we believe that the attorney general is the best one for that."

• Owner John Simmons told Channel 13 that tariffs have raised his costs and slowed his business to the point that he's had to let employees go, including managers.

• Ford criticized Lombardo for vetoing bills that would have lowered drug costs, provided free school meals to all students and prohibited corporations from buying homes and driving up the costs. He said Lombardo should stand up to Trump and tell him the tariffs are hurting businesses in the state.

• "It certainly played a role," Wachter said of the regulation. "When you have the governor who is running on the idea that he has canceled or rescinded so many of these anti-business regulations that are increasing the cost of doing business and making things more difficult for Nevadans, and then to find out that he's pushing something that is not only going to affect health care but start affecting where we buy our groceries and whether people, they can access their medication, that's a huge red flag."

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