The Lombardo camp's read of the room

First runner up. Formalizing a foregone conclusion, the Democratic National Committee over the weekend confirmed that South Carolina will hold the party's first presidential primary of 2028 on Jan. 22, and Nevada will have the second on Feb. 1.

Which reminds me that meanwhile in lil' ol' 2026, the Lombardo reelection effort has been running ads that simply say Gavin Newsom (who is running for president in 2028) has endorsed Aaron Ford for governor. The Lombardo camp seems to believe that fact alone is all some people need to know about Aaron Ford, so those people will show up and vote for Joe Lombardo.

Given the infuriating economy and the humiliating war and the nauseating AI and, you know, All The Things, the endorsement — indeed, the existence — of Gavin Newsom is of little concern to any voters save the MAGA faithful. So as (I think) I've said/speculated before: The Lombardo camp spending money to tell people the Democratic governor of California — gasp! — supports the Democratic nominee for governor in Nevada (stop the presses!) may indicate the Lombardo peeps are less than confident about the Republican base showing up.

Oh right, I forgot, 2028. Yes, fascinating, I'm sure. Eventually.

IN NEVADA CURRENT

One SOS (Washington state's) said he’s less worried about a White House effort to cancel or attack the legitimacy of elections across the country. Rather, he fears a more targeted effort to interfere with or challenge results in a few states that could determine the balance of federal power. Via Stateline: No more ‘hypothetical situations’: States move to fortify elections against Trump

Note: On the one hand, from our creepy fake electors to efforts to kill our mail ballots, and a bunch of stuff in between, Nevada is almost always one of the states specifically targeted by Trump in his relentless war on free and fair elections. On the other hand, we don't have a U.S. Senate race this year, and we don't have enough House seats to warrant, oh, an invasion. But in the end Trump's a freak show, so rest assured even he has no idea what he's going to do. Could be anything.

Lombardo's read of the room might be a little off. As of the last campaign finance filing, Benjamin Horowitz, who along with his tech venture capital partner Mark Andreesen has contributed at least $75 million to the nation’s largest AI industry political action committee, has also contributed at least $1 million to the main PAC supporting Lombardo. In other words, I made some additions and revisions and turned Saturday's newsletter into a column: Lombardo’s big sloppy crush on data centers finally attracts Ford’s attention

Nevada Democratic Party chair still thinks Nevada should have been first. Because of course she does. The D.C. bureau wrote up the DNC's aforementioned weekend formality: DNC approves 2028 presidential nominating cycle starting in South Carolina, Nevada

Big Brother update: Fifty-seven local jurisdictions nationwide have canceled, suspended or rejected Flock automated license plate reader contracts or deactivated cameras since the beginning of this year. Nope, not one of them is in Nevada (although Flock of course is). Via Stateline: Flock Safety tightens safeguards as states, cities question surveillance network

Good Luck