Military service

After graduating from high school in 1980, Lombardo joined the United States Army. During his time in the Army, he served in the Nevada National Guard and in the United States Army Reserve. He ended his military service in 1986.^[11]

Law enforcement career

Lombardo joined the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department as an officer in 1988. He rose through the ranks, becoming a sergeant in 1996, a lieutenant in 2001, and a captain in 2006.^[5] He was promoted to assistant sheriff in 2011.^[8]

As assistant sheriff, Lombardo was in charge of the law enforcement services group, which included the department's divisions in charge of technical services, information technology, radio systems and professional standards.^[9]

Lombardo also sat on the board of directors of the LVMPD Foundation from 2007 to 2014.^[9] He retired from the police force after 26 years of service and stepped down from the foundation's board of directors in 2014 after being elected sheriff.

Lombardo had made appearances on the TV show Cops during the early 2000s.^[12]

First term (2015–2019)

On December 4, 2013, Lombardo announced his candidacy for sheriff of Clark County to succeed the retiring Doug Gillespie.^[10] He won the primary election and narrowly defeated the Democratic nominee, retired LVMPD captain Larry Burns, in the November 4 general election.^[13] Lombardo took office on January 5, 2015.^[14] As sheriff he was head of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, the combined law enforcement agency of Las Vegas and Clark County and Nevada's largest law enforcement agency, overseeing more than 5,000 officers.^[15][16]

After becoming sheriff, Lombardo began the decentralization of LVMPD's detective operations, shifting detective operations from centralized crime-specific units to distribution of detectives throughout LVMPD area commands.^[17]

In 2016, Lombardo connected the Las Vegas crime increase to a California law called Proposition 47, which is meant to reduce prison overcrowding.^[18] Later that year, he responded to questions about a recent spike of violent crimes in Las Vegas, saying that the surge "keeps me up at night".^[19][20] He later disagreed with FBI director James Comey's statement attributing a recent spike in violent crimes in Las Vegas to a so-called Ferguson effect.^[21] In December 2016, Lombardo supported a high-capacity magazine ban, a call supported by the Las Vegas Sun editorial board.^[22] By February 2017, Lombardo had concluded that the number of homicides in Las Vegas increased by an average of 20 each year.^[23]

In September 2017, following the arrest of Seattle Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett in Las Vegas, Lombardo dismissed Bennett's allegations that two police officers who arrested him used excessive force and made vulgar threats, claiming video evidence of the arrest did not corroborate the allegations.^[24]

Following the 2017 Las Vegas shooting at Mandalay Bay and Route 91 Harvest, in which 59 people died and 527 were injured—the deadliest mass shooting in the modern U.S. history—Lombardo oversaw the investigation into the shooting and into the perpetrator, Stephen Paddock.^[25][26]

Second term (2019–2023)

Lombardo won the 2018 primary election with 73% of the vote,^[27][28] defeating four challengers.^[28] He was sworn in to a second term on January 4, 2019, and during the ceremony touted an expansion of the LVMPD's staff levels during his tenure (an increase of more than 900 officers and 280 corrections officers).^[27][29] Later that year, Lombardo's department issued a report recommending many changes to improve the police response to future critical incidents.^[30]

In June 2020, amid the George Floyd protests, the LVMPD arrested six people observing a protest along the Las Vegas Strip.^[31] Governor Steve Sisolak called for an investigation. Lombardo defended the department's actions by releasing body-cam videos of the six engaging in "antagonizing behavior" and obstructing officers.^[32]

As sheriff, Lombardo made an annual salary of $161,000.^[8]

In lieu of running for a third term, Lombardo ran for governor of Nevada in 2022. He was replaced by LVMPD undersheriff Kevin McMahill.^[33]

2022 gubernatorial campaign

Lombardo announced his candidacy for governor of Nevada on June 28, 2021, to challenge incumbent governor Steve Sisolak in the 2022 election.^[11] Lombardo faced 11 other candidates, including the presumptive front-runner, Dean Heller, a former U.S. senator. Lombardo eventually surpassed Heller by double digits in the polls^[34] and was widely considered the front-runner by February.^[35][36][37] Former President Donald Trump endorsed Lombardo in April 2022.^[38] Lombardo won the Republican nomination on June 14, 2022, with 38.3% of the vote, defeating his main competitors, including Heller, Reno-based attorney and former boxer Joey Gilbert, and North Las Vegas Mayor John Jay Lee.^[39] On November 12, 2022, several days after election day, Lombardo was projected to win, having defeated Sisolak by roughly 16,000 votes.^[40]

Tenure

Lombardo was sworn in on January 2, 2023, the same day Cisco Aguilar became Nevada Secretary of State and Andy Matthews became Nevada State Controller.^[6][41] On his fourth day in office, Lombardo signed two executive orders to remove remaining COVID-19 mandates and address workforce vacancies and wages.^[42][43] On January 12, Lombardo signed two more executive orders aimed at reducing regulatory burdens. The orders would suspend any new regulations from executive agencies, with exceptions for regulations that would affect public health, public safety, pending judicial deadlines and the essential duties of an executive branch.^[44]

In his State of the State address on January 23, Lombardo proposed a two-year $11 billion budget that would be the largest general fund budget in Nevada history and pledged $2 billion per biennium for K-12 education—an increase of more than 22% from the previous biennium. He also promised to restore funding to the state's higher education system and proposed adding $313 million into what he announced as the "Nevada Way Fund", a savings fund to be used for infrastructure and development projects.^[45][46] On March 1, Lombardo signed legislation to transfer $70 million from the state's general fund to the education fund.^[47]

In May, Lombardo proposed implementing a voter ID requirement to roll back vote-by-mail. State Democratic legislators have said the proposal would be "dead on arrival".^[48]

In June, Lombardo introduced a bill to the Nevada State Legislature to help fund a $1.5 billion 30,000-seat ballpark built on the site of the Tropicana Las Vegas for the Oakland Athletics' relocation to Las Vegas via partial public financing.^[49] During a special session, the bill was amended and renamed SB1 on June 7. By June 15, he signed SB1 into law, which authorized the funding and construction of the ballpark after it passed in the Legislature by a majority vote.^[50] In June 2023, Lombardo signed a bill to provide $380 million in public funding for the stadium.^[51] Proponents of the public funding package argued that it would be good for Nevada's economy, while some economists argued that studies show these kinds of deals are bad investments for taxpayers.^[52]

In September 2023, the work vacancy rate in Nevada stood at 24.3%, virtually unchanged since Lombardo was sworn in as governor.^[53] In an attempt to lower the vacancy rate, Lombardo signed an executive order on September 18 that suspended certain minimum qualification requirements for state jobs for at least 90 days.^[54]

Death penalty

In an April 2022 interview with The Nevada Independent, Lombardo said he supports the death penalty as long as there is due process.^[56]

Police reform

Lombardo has said he opposes the "defund the police" slogan.^[56]

Education

Lombardo supports an audit of the education system. In an April 2022 interview with The Nevada Independent, he said he would investigate whether education funds are being allocated appropriately on "day one" of his governorship.^[56]

Abortion

During his 2022 campaign, Lombardo made clear he opposes abortion, but opposes a national abortion ban and supports upholding the codification of abortion rights passed by Nevada voters in 1990.^[57] On May 30, 2023, Lombardo signed into law a bill enshrining protections for out-of-state abortion seekers and in-state abortion providers.^[58] Lombardo had described his views as "pro-life" and was endorsed by National Right to Life, a Political Action Committee that opposes abortion rights, but, as of May 2023, he was one of three Republican governors, along with Phil Scott of Vermont and Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, to have signed legislation protecting access to abortion services.^[59][60][61]

Gun control

Lombardo supports universal background checks on people purchasing guns.^[62] As Clark County sheriff, he supported a high-capacity magazine ban.^[22]

LGBTQ rights

Lombardo signed legislation that "prevents insurance companies from discriminating against trans people on the basis of gender identity, while the other measure signed in late May requires prisons to develop regulations to ensure safety of trans and nonbinary people who are incarcerated."^[63] But while signing two pieces of legislation to protect transgender and non-binary rights in Nevada, Lombardo vetoed a third bill that would have strengthened protections for medical providers offering gender-affirming care to minors.^[64][65]

Voting

In an April 2022 interview with The Nevada Independent, Lombardo said he did not believe there was fraud in the 2020 presidential election and saw no reason to believe Joe Biden was not "duly elected". But he said that "the election system has the ability to have fraud in it".^[56]