NEW: Joe Lombardo’s “Pattern of Rewarding Billionaires While Vetoing Bills for Nevada Families”

NEW: Joe Lombardo’s “Pattern of Rewarding Billionaires While Vetoing Bills for Nevada Families”

New reporting from Meidas Touch News reveals how Lombardo’s campaign is being bankrolled by billionaire donors who directly benefited from “a veto, a firing, or a favorable regulatory decision” made by the vulnerable governor.

MTN highlighted five of Lombardo’s “most prominent donor relationships” that show a clear pattern of his billionaire backers being rewarded with a “favorable” decision – including vetoes on affordable housing, lower prescription drug pricing, and more – after contributing millions to Lombardo’s campaigns and allies.

Read more below about how Lombardo does the bidding of his billionaire backers while leaving hardworking Nevadans paying the price.

Meidas Touch News: Lombardo’s Donor Record: A Pattern of Rewarding Billionaires While Vetoing Bills for Nevada Families

• Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo has built a reelection war chest stocked with money from mining companies, pharmaceutical firms, real estate moguls, and casino owners, and in case after case, a veto, a firing, or a favorable regulatory decision has preceded or followed a significant contribution from the interests that benefited.

• In December 2025, Nevada’s longtime state engineer, Adam Sullivan, was fired, the first removal of a sitting state engineer since 1981… The Nevada Independent reviewed roughly 200 emails and documents showing company representatives and lobbyists complaining to Lombardo’s office, with one executive telling the governor’s chief of staff on November 12 that Sullivan’s approach was “coercion masked as collaboration.” A month later, Sullivan was out.

• Three months later, in March 2026, Nevada Gold Mines gave $500,000 to a PAC supporting Lombardo’s reelection, adding to a $500,000 donation the company made to the same PAC in 2024. That brings the company’s total giving to Lombardo’s PAC to $1 million, making it his single largest donor. 

• Twice, Nevada lawmakers have passed legislation to cap prescription drug prices for all Nevadans at the rate the federal government negotiates for Medicare under the Inflation Reduction Act, and twice, Lombardo has vetoed it….  Democrats countered that polling showed roughly 71% of Nevadans supported the measure… The Nevada Democratic Party has published tallies asserting the pharmaceutical industry funneled tens of thousands of dollars to Lombardo’s campaign in the aftermath of each veto… 

• Real estate and aerospace billionaire Robert Bigelow was Lombardo’s single biggest backer in the 2022 race, giving nearly $200,000 directly to the campaign and funneling more than $13 million combined into the Better Nevada PAC and Stronger Nevada PAC that supported him, part of almost $50 million Bigelow spent that cycle across Nevada Republican campaigns and committees (The Nevada Independent)… On policy, Lombardo has vetoed legislation aimed at stabilizing rents and protecting tenants…

• Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, who own Station Casinos, rank among Lombardo’s largest donors…  During the 2025 legislative session, Lombardo vetoed a slate of bills the Culinary Union says would have helped tourism-industry workers… 

• In May 2025, Nevada OSHA cited Elon Musk’s Boring Company for safety violations tied to incidents in which workers and firefighters suffered chemical burns, issuing more than $400,000 in fines. One day after the citations were issued, following a call from Boring Company president Steve Davis to Gov. Lombardo’s office, the fines were rescinded.

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