A new marketing campaign mailer calling Nevada nonpartisan governor candidate Danielle Ford the “AOC of Nevada” is backed by a newly fashioned political motion committee with obvious ties to Republican political operatives.
The mailer, which options a cutout of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) standing next to Ford against a daring crimson background, was paid for by the Silver State Accountability political motion committee. The PAC was created on Oct. 8 and has no online footprint — even its web site listed on registration paperwork (silverstateaccountability.com) is under construction as of Tuesday.
Ford, a member of the state board of training and previous trustee on the Clark County School District Board, has raised comparatively little in her long-shot impartial bid for governor, but she shares the same surname as Democratic governor candidate and Attorney General Aaron Ford (D), which could confuse voters.
She did not immediately reply to an electronic mail through what seems to be a press contact, a message on the social media platform X or a voicemail.
The PAC boosting her is identified as a “shadow PAC” because its registrants exploited a loophole in state law by setting it up after Sept. 30, lacking Nevada’s marketing campaign finance reporting deadline and avoiding donor reporting before Election Day. However, its registration type lists an deal with tied to a mailbox workplace rental company in the same industrial complicated as Gov. Joe Lombardo’s (R) marketing campaign workplace, and the registered brokers seem to have ties to Republicans.
With current polling exhibiting the governor’s race a “tossup,” boosting Danielle Ford among left-leaning voters could be an attempt to muddy the waters. In aggressive races nationwide, candidates with the same last identify have confused voters and even led to a disqualification. It’s also not the first time it’s occurred in Nevada: In 2022, Democratic teams spent six figures boosting a “Patriot Freedom Fund” shadow PAC that bashed then-candidate Lombardo from the proper.
Aaron Ford marketing campaign spokesperson Tai Sims called Danielle Ford a “MAGA plant being propped up by Joe Lombardo’s Republican allies.”
Halee Dobbins, a spokesperson for Gov. Joe Lombardo’s (R) marketing campaign, instructed The Nevada Independent that the marketing campaign had no data of the PAC or mailer.
A photograph of a mailer despatched to Nevada residents on Oct. 19, 2026. (Tabitha Mueller/The Nevada Independent)
Danielle Ford and the PAC
Hope Hohnke is listed as the PAC’s registered agent. Reached by The Indy on Tuesday, Hohnke directed reporters to the PAC’s chairman, Dustin McIntyre. Hohnke lives in Oklahoma and said she was not the level individual for the PAC. She shared McIntyre’s electronic mail and did not reply questions about her celebration registration, the PAC’s goal or ties to the Republican Party.
McIntyre did not return an electronic mail searching for remark. He’s listed as treasurer for almost 80 PACs across the nation, most with Republican ties, including as the treasurer for Save Nevada NOW, a PAC run by Assm. Lisa Cole (R-Las Vegas), which The Nevada Independent previously reported was partially funded by a conservative darkish money group. Other PACs McIntyre has registered have despatched attack mailers against Nevada Democrats in current weeks.
Ford does not seem to have beforehand linked herself to Ocasio-Cortez’s politics. Instead, she has embraced a selection of conspiracy theories, including claiming that anyone who believed the “official story” of Sept. 11, 2001, is a “moron,” opposing vaccines and voting against obligatory COVID-19 vaccines for workers at the Clark County School District. In 2011, she also called former President Barack Obama (D) a “douchehead.”
As a Clark County School Board trustee, Danielle Ford also called black college students “coloured” during a neighborhood assembly about racist threats against a native college, prompting calls for her resignation.
Commenters on Danielle Ford’s Facebook videos have called her “our little model of AOC” and “our AOC“, both of which were preferred or hearted by her Facebook web page.
A consultant for Ocasio-Cortez did not immediately reply to an electronic mail request for remark.