Move over 2026, 2028 hopefuls are already swarming Nevada.

Indy Elections takes you behind the headlines of Nevada politics, delivering scoops and good evaluation on the races that could reshape our lives. You can change your publication settings here.

In right this moment’s version: Why we’re already speaking about the 2028 presidential election. Plus: Obama weighs in on the governor race; a Trump-funded group backs out of advert spending in the third Congressional District; and The Church of Latter-Day Saints (LDS), along with the Nevada Catholic Conference, converse out against Nevada’s abortion poll query.

Former President Barack Obama (D) urged Nevadans to vote for Attorney General Aaron Ford (D) on Wednesday. The gubernatorial endorsement comes as Obama has backed several Democratic gubernatorial candidates main up to the midterms.

The message arrived the same day President Donald Trump (R) stumped in Arizona. No phrase yet on an official Trump go to to Nevada (or an Obama/Boyz II Men encore in Vegas), but rumors are swirling.

Stay tuned for more updates. Nineteen days to go.

This publication is printed every week. We need to hear from you! Email your momentary publication editor, Tabitha Mueller, at [email protected].

Rep. Susie Lee (D-NV) speaks at a rally in entrance of Clark County Government Center after submitting for re-election on March 10, 2026. (Jeff Scheid/The Nevada Independent)

Exclusive: How much did TBT and Susie Lee raise?

Third-quarter fundraising totals (protecting July through September) for Democrats working in Nevada’s most aggressive congressional races, shared first with The Nevada Independent, signal Democratic enthusiasm forward of Election Day.

In the 2nd Congressional District, former Assembly Majority Leader Teresa Benitez-Thompson (D) introduced in $533,000 going into the fall. That’s the largest three-month fundraising quantity for a NV-02 Democratic nominee since the 2011 particular election that first despatched Rep. Mark Amodei (R-NV) to Congress. It’s more than 2006 NV-02 nominee Jill Derby (D), who made the race the closest it’s been this century, ever raised in one quarter.

In the third Congressional District, Rep. Susie Lee (D-NV) raised $1.2 million last quarter, bringing her fundraising complete for the cycle to $5.6 million, the most she has ever raised at this level before an election. Her marketing campaign said her median donation was $10 and that she had more than 1,800 donations in complete.

— Mini Racker

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) speaks during a canvass launch occasion at Harris for President headquarters in North Las Vegas on July 27, 2024. (Jeff Scheid/The Nevada Independent)

I’m so 2028, you’re so 20-late

You may be targeted on the midterms, but some presidential hopefuls are already trying to 2028.

Since we launched our 2028 candidate go to tracker in April, 13 potential presidential candidates have made 21 journeys to Nevada, and more will be here soon.

Two huge names are coming: former Vice President Kamala Harris (D) and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), who will go to during early voting.

The tracker also reveals which candidates have traveled here most, hinting at who is paying the most consideration to Nevada. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D), Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D), former transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg (D), Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) and Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) are among the most frequent guests.

If you’d like to see the potential 2028ers in-person, you can catch not just one but 4 at IndyFest next Thursday. I’ll be interviewing Beshear, Khanna, Kelly and Emanuel alongside Nevada Independent CEO Jon Ralston. I’m drafting questions this week — e mail me at [email protected].

— Mini Racker

What we’re studying and writing

Lombaro’s training report card is here.

Liens and code violations and enforcement penalties, oh my!

Know your judicial candidates.

Woke up in Vegas but determined to go to Bullhead instead.

Indy Ad Watch: Trump pulls back

Safety and Affordability PAC, which is financially backed by President Donald Trump’s MAGA Inc., had deliberate to pour $3 million into TV adverts supporting video sport composer Marty O’Donnell’s (R) bid to oust Rep. Susie Lee (D-NV).

On Tuesday, the Trump-funded group canceled $1 million in advert reservations. It’s unclear what will occur to the adverts reserved after that.

It comes after The Cook Political Report moved the seat toward Democrats and Politico reported that MAGA Inc. “is planning to trim the map in a homestretch bid to cling to power in November,” including “cutting off spending to a group of less attainable House races.”

The race is still thought of the GOP’s best likelihood to flip a congressional seat in Nevada. O’Donnell and the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) have collectively spent more than $2 million this fall. Last week, NRCC communications director Will Kiley named the district a high seat to watch for an upset, telling Politico, “The resources are coming in to flip this seat because the GOP ecosystem can see how big of an opportunity it is.”

Other advert information to watch:

Speaking of at-risk Republicans in redder seats, Invest in Tomorrow Coalition PAC has begun its deliberate advert spend focusing on David Flippo (R) in the 2nd Congressional District, and it’s huge.

The clean vitality tremendous PAC has reserved more than $1 million in adverts starting this week and working through Election Day, making it the greatest spender in the race, per AdInfluence.

It’s the first time in at least 20 years a Republican nominee in the district has been focused by seven figures of outside spending. And it reveals that Democrats’ arguments that the map has expanded into deep pink seats are more than just speaking factors, they’re backed with actual {dollars}.

Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar (D) hit the Nevada airwaves for the first time this week with the release of 4 new adverts for his re-election.

Aguilar had already spent money on digital adverts, but this is the first time on broadcast. His marketing campaign is planning a seven-figure advert buy this cycle, while his opponent, Jim Marchant (R), has not reserved any advert space, according to AdInfluence.

— Mini Racker and Eric Neugeboren

Sen. Melanie Scheible (D-Las Vegas) inside the Legislature on the ultimate day of the 83rd session in Carson City on June 2, 2025. (David Calvert/The Nevada Independent)

Mini Series: Mormons stormin’ to stop Q6?

⛪️ Churches in the Silver State — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), as properly as the Nevada Catholic Conference, are talking out in opposition to Nevada Ballot Question 6, defending the proper to an abortion until fetal viability in the state Constitution. Organized spiritual opposition to the measure, which handed with 64 p.c of voters in favor in 2024, prompted a lookback to a related poll query battle twenty years in the past, according to Dennis McBride, historian and queer rights advocate in Las Vegas.

The last time the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints weighed in on a Nevada poll measure was more than 20 years in the past when the church supported banning same-sex marriages — a successful constitutional modification made moot by the U.S. Supreme Court ruling legalizing the follow in 2015. A Deseret News article from 2000 said that the query was significantly helped by “grassroots” organizing from the Latter-day Saints and other spiritual teams. They also opposed an abortion poll query handed in the Nineties.

“There are more Catholics in Nevada than Mormons, I believe, but Mormons are more likely to vote as a bloc than Catholics are. And while there are fewer Mormons than Catholics, Mormons tend to hold more positions of political influence in state and local government,” McBride informed The Indy in an e mail. He moved away from his hometown in Boulder City due to the passage of Ballot Question 2. “So their approach to political issues can be twofold: from within by individuals in influential positions, and without, by speaking out to their congregations.”

If Ballot Question 6 passes, McBride said it would be a robust blow to the Latter-day Saints political equipment. “The Mormon and Catholic Churches are fighting harder this time because if the state constitution is amended to secure and protect abortion rights in Nevada, it will be a slap in their face from which they will not recover,” McBride said in an e mail.

The church counsels its followers to “opposes elective abortion for personal or social convenience,” though it makes exceptions for rape, incest or if the mom or the child’s health is in severe jeopardy. The Church of Latter-day Saints was not immediately out there for remark.

💸 Beefing up sources — Central to the race for Nevada controller is the time it takes to release Nevada’s annual financial reports. The time for the most current report decreased for the first time in years but was still the second highest on report. This week, state officers took steps to proper the ship, approving a $2.1 million contract with a financial reporting firm to velocity up the release of the reports. Controller Andy Matthews (R) said in a assertion that the contract “will not only allow us to continue to make progress toward getting our reporting back on time, but accelerate that progress.”

👩‍⚖️ Attorney vs. Attorney — State Sen. Melanie Scheible (D) is taking swings at her challenger, attorney Maria Thompson (R), for representing a resort company against claims that it turned a blind eye to intercourse trafficking. Thompson’s firm represented Highgate Hotels in a 2023 federal lawsuit alleging the company knew a younger lady was being intercourse trafficked at two of its New York City properties in the early 2010s. She was one of two attorneys for Highgate, which in 2025 was dismissed as a defendant (with prejudice, which means the same claims can’t be introduced forth again).

Scheible’s marketing campaign despatched voters pamphlets that state, “When a victim of sex trafficking demanded accountability, Maria Thompson fought the survivor’s claims in court.”

In a assertion to The Indy, Thompson said the adverts misrepresent the reality about the lawsuit and confused that she can not control what purchasers she represents, nor could she have eliminated herself from the case.

Thompson also said it’s hypocritical coming from Scheible, a former Clark County prosecutor who’s now a protection attorney at a personal harm firm. “She spends her time in court fighting to free killers, reckless drivers and other criminals,” she wrote.

⚡The “Chosen One” — Assembly District 9 candidate Ryan Hampton (D) said that he acquired a package deal from his opponent, Erica Neely, full of articles written by the Nevada conservative politico Chuck Muth. Hampton informed The Indy that it was “intimidation 101” and “a way of saying we know where you live and who you live with.”

The state of affairs provoked some back-and-forth on X. Muth came to Neely’s protection after Hampton posted about the incident and a photograph of an AI-generated mailer that Neely is sending out calling herself “the one.” In response, Muth called Hampton a “snowflake” and said that Hampton is jealous that Neely “looks better in an evening gown than he does.”

Hampton said that extremist accounts on X have come after him, calling him names and homophobic slurs.

Neely did not immediately return a request for remark.

— Oona Milliken, Eric Neugeboren, Kate Reynolds and Isabella Aldrete

Looking Ahead

A post that caught our eye:

Dana White endorsed Lombardo. If there’s no Ford-Lombardo debate, could we at least get a UFC battle?

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