Nevada Secretary of State: 2026 Election Winner

California advocacy groups battling Gov. Gavin Newsom over labor rules, artificial intelligence regulation, transportation funding, and cap-and-trade policy are increasingly pressuring him outside California, betting that his likely 2028 presidential ambitions give them new leverage. Transit advocates have run newspaper ads in South Carolina and Nevada targeting Newsom-backed climate program changes, a business group put up a Times Square billboard attacking his record, and labor leaders have warned they will confront him on the campaign trail over AI and workplace protections if he does not act. Labor leaders from Iowa and North Carolina have publicly said they will meet him at events like the Iowa State Fair unless he negotiates on AI and worker protections.

Strategists say the tactic aims less at swaying votes now than at forcing unresolved Sacramento fights into a national narrative before rivals or opposition campaigns can weaponize them. California Labor Federation President Lorena Gonzalez says talks with Newsom's office have intensified, including after labor allies confronted him during a Texas trip, and that he now discusses AI as a threat to workers. Newsom's office insists out-of-state pressure campaigns do not affect his decisions, though analysts remain split on whether the tactic builds his name recognition or exposes real vulnerabilities as his term nears its end.

The U.S. Justice Department sent Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar a litigation-hold letter confirming he is under investigation and demanding his office preserve records tied to the 2024 election. The notice came three weeks after a federal court dismissed the DOJ's lawsuit seeking Nevada's unredacted voter registration database, and just before the statutory 22-month preservation period under the Civil Rights Act of 1960 was set to expire. The DOJ had originally requested sensitive voter data, including Social Security numbers and driver's license numbers, which Nevada law bars from disclosure; a judge ruled the government failed to justify the demand.

Aguilar said his office is already preserving the records and complying with the letter's legal requirements, while accusing the administration of trying to intimidate state election officials ahead of the 2026 midterms. His office separately disclosed receiving seven DOJ subpoenas over voter information in recent months, though it's unclear if they relate to the investigation described in the letter. The DOJ has not detailed the scope of any case against Aguilar.

Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford has appealed to the state Supreme Court to revive criminal charges against six Republicans accused in the 2020 "fake electors" scheme. A Clark County District Court judge dismissed the case in August, ruling prosecutors withheld exculpatory evidence from the grand jury and failed to show "fraudulent intent." The defendants—Michael McDonald, Jesse Law, James DeGraffenreid, Durward Hindle III, Shawn Meehan and Eileen Rice—had faced forgery charges for submitting a certificate falsely declaring Donald Trump the winner of Nevada in 2020. Trump pardoned them federally last year, but that pardon does not cover state charges. Ford, now running for governor against incumbent Joe Lombardo, says he expects the high court to side with his office.

Luis Alberto Osorio of Elko, Nevada, pleaded guilty to straw purchasing of firearms, trafficking in firearms, harboring aliens, and conspiracy to launder money, the Department of Justice announced. Between April 2020 and September 2025, Osorio conspired with co-defendants to buy 140 firearms, including large-caliber and long-range weapons, along with magazines and ammunition, on behalf of individuals tied to drug trafficking organizations in Mexico.

Osorio also admitted to harboring people unlawfully in the U.S. to employ them at a Nevada mining company. Officials from HSI, the DEA, and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Nevada framed the case as part of broader efforts to disrupt firearms trafficking networks that supply cartels and fuel cross-border violence. The investigation involved a multi-agency Department of Homeland Security task force, including the FBI, ATF, IRS-CI, and local Las Vegas police. Osorio faces a statutory maximum of 70 years in prison, with sentencing scheduled for February 11, 2027.