Joe Lombardo, Trump-backed Republican sheriff, wins Nevada governor race

Republican Joe Lombardo, a career police officer and sheriff in Las Vegas who was endorsed by Donald Trump, has been elected governor in Nevada.

Lombardo defeated Steve Sisolak, regaining the governorship for the GOP and making Sisolak a one-term Democrat amid two decades of Republicans.

The count of ballots in Nevada took several days partly due to a provision of a broad mail voting law passed by the state legislature in 2020. It requires counties to accept ballots postmarked by election day if they arrive up to four days later.

Lombardo, 60, started as a police officer in Las Vegas in 1988 and served two terms as Clark county sheriff, the non-partisan elected head of the Las Vegas metropolitan police department, the largest police agency in the state.

He weathered campaign attacks on rising crime by acknowledging the increase during the last two years and blaming funding limits and mandates from a Democratic-controlled legislature.

Lombardo sometimes distanced himself from Trump during the campaign, and never offered an endorsement of unfounded claims that the 2020 presidential election was marred by fraud. Lombardo said during his only campaign debate with Sisolak that any irregularities were not enough to change the outcome of the election.