AG Ford says his plan for Nevada involves three pillars: Housing, Healthcare and Energy.
We are less than two months away from the Nevada Primary Election on June 9.
The Governor’s race is one of the biggest races we’ll be keeping our eyes on.
In an exclusive interview with 2 News Nevada, Attorney General Aaron Ford, a big democratic challenger for Governor Joe Lombardo, shares his entire “Affordable Nevada” plan with us.
AG Ford says his main focal point is bringing prices down. His plan has three pillars: housing, health care, and energy.
He says he’s been spending the past few months talking to Nevadans all over the state.
"The Affordable Nevada plan is going to address what they tell me the main issue is,” Ford said. “That's the fact that this this place is too expensive."
For housing, Ford wants to continue the fight against corporations buying up a bulk of homes.
An issue that was recently brought up in the 2025 Nevada Legislative Special Session.
Nevada lawmakers made history by bringing forth their own bill to the special session proclamation, but the bill did not receive a constitutional majority on the Assembly floor.
Ford, who spoke at the bill’s committee hearing, says he plans on signing the bill if it’s presented to him.
His plan also includes removing ‘junk’ rental fees and further helping renters get into new homes.
"The average price of rent here is $2,000 a month, and they can right now charge three times as much, $6,000 (for security deposits),” Ford said. “And that's pricing people out of the homes. And so we're going to limit that to one month's rent as a security deposit."
The second portion is health care. One part of his plan is capping prescription drug prices.
"This is something that Joe Lombardo had the ability to try to address and instead, he vetoed a bill that would have limited the price of prescription drugs to the Medicare negotiated price,” Ford said. “I'm going to sign that bill."
Lombardo did veto two bills, one in 2023 and the other in 2025 claiming that it would actually raise prices instead of dropping them.
Ford’s health care pillar looks to cancel medical debt and give more support for rural hospitals.
In the 2025 legislative session, Lombardo created an Attainable Housing Account and the Nevada Health Authority to address gaps in both fields.
It’s unclear if Ford will continue these programs if he’s captain of the ship.
“Well, let's be clear, Joe Lombardo has had four years almost right now to address these issues,” he said when asked if he would dissolve the initiatives or run them under his leadership. “Task forces aren't going to get the job done. What you need is, is bold action.”
The last portion of it centers around energy costs and data centers.
“We're going to begin by getting rid of this, what I consider to be an unlawful demand charge that NV Energy is trying to place upon consumers right now. We're also going to ensure that big energy consumers like data centers when they come into our state, that they pay for grid modernization, and that they themselves are looking at ways to, pay for their own energy so that consumers aren't left to feel that brunt as well.”
AG Ford talks about his plans should he wins, and a debate challenge from primary challenger Alexis Hill.
Washoe County Commissioner Alexis Hill is most likely Ford’s biggest democratic challenger in the primary election.
On Thursday, Hill called out Ford to do a public debate with her on May 14.
“I am setting a date for us to meet up because I have already offered to debate Ford anytime, anywhere – in private communications, in official requests to his campaign, in social media and press interviews, and via media outlets eager to host these important conversations,” Hill said in a statement sent to press. “He and his team have refused to even acknowledge my invitations to debate.”
We asked Ford if he would take her up on it.
"What I have found is that the best way to get our word out is that talk directly to Nevadans and I've been doing that," he responded.
Lombardo’s Political Action Committee, Better Nevada PAC, is running political attack ads claiming Ford travels a lot. The commercials call him, “High-Flying Ford”.
We asked the Attorney General about the claims.
"The juvenile attacks that we see coming from the Lombardo administration demonstrate that they don't have an ability to run on what's really important to Nevadans right now, and that are the high prices that we're going to be affecting with the Affordable Nevada Plan,” Ford said. “Whenever he's ready to talk about problems that are really affecting Nevadans, I'll be right here.”
19 other candidates are running against Ford.
For the Republicans, incumbent Governor Joe Lombardo, Barak Zilberberg, Donald J. Beaudry Jr., Matthew Rian Winterhawk, Jose M. Zelaya, Irina Hansen, and Michael Kameron Hawkins.
Democratic candidates include Washoe County Commissioner Alexis Hill, Miqehl Bayfield, James Cooper, and Emile Bouari.
There are quite a few people running not affiliated with a political party, which includes: Max Beck, Christopher Battenberg, Emilio Ray Rodriguez, John T. Scott, Allen Anderson Rheinhart, Jordan Koteras, and Danielle Ford.
Watch below of our exclusive one-on-one interview with Lombardo on his plans if reelected.
2 News Nevada had an exclusive one-on-one interview with Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo about his new headquarters and some of his priorities for the upcoming election.
