Nevada voters ages 18 to 24 swung 35 points toward Democrats, helping Aaron Ford defeat Gov. Joe Lombardo

What happened

Young voters in Nevada moved sharply toward Democrats in the 2026 election and helped Democrat Aaron Ford unseat Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo, the Las Vegas Sun reported. Citing The New York Times, the Sun said voters ages 18 to 24 made up roughly 12% of the state's electorate and swung 35 points toward Democrats compared with 2024.

Ford won 51% to 44%, a margin of more than 83,000 votes, according to Monday morning's unofficial tally from the Nevada secretary of state's office. The Sun noted the race had been expected to be close.

The numbers behind the shift

Nevada results

Democratic candidates won every major state race, according to the Sun. Teresa Benitez-Thompson became the first Democrat to win Northern Nevada's 2nd Congressional District, which was created after the 1980 census. For more on the broader results, see how Nevada Democrats swept the 2026 election.

National polling

In 2024, young voters nationally split roughly evenly between President Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, according to AP VoteCast. This year, the AP Voter Poll, a survey of more than 100,000 voters in all 50 states, found about 7 in 10 voters under 30 backed the Democrat in their U.S. House race, while about 3 in 10 backed the Republican.

Young voters also shifted toward Democrats in every Senate race where the party picked up a seat, including Texas, Kansas, Iowa, Ohio and North Carolina. UNLV professor David Damore told the Sun the Nevada result is "consistent with national trends" and said first-time voters went blue 2-to-1 according to national exit polls.

Why young voters say they turned out

Opposition to Trump

About 6 in 10 voters under 30 said one reason for their House vote was to express opposition to the president, the AP Voter Poll found. That compared with about half of voters ages 30 to 44 and about 4 in 10 of those 45 and older. About half of young voters said they were angry about the country's direction, compared with about a third of voters 65 and older.

Sondra Cosgrove, a College of Southern Nevada professor, said her students were more motivated than in 2024 because they oppose Trump, object to his immigration policies and are struggling with inflation. She told the Sun that two years ago many students said they would not vote, while this year more of them were asking her for help figuring out what to do.

Immigration and affordability

Cynthia Trejo, a 24-year-old member of Culinary Workers Union Local 226, cast her first ballot this year and cited deportations. "My dad is an immigrant who's just been working hard, and still he doesn't have a voice," she told the Sun.

Carlos Alba, a 26-year-old Nevada native, pointed to rent and housing costs. "The idea of owning a home is a dream, but it's almost not an achievable one at this point in time," he said. Inflation-related hardship was a central theme of Ford's campaign, the Sun reported, and he tied Lombardo to the region's sagging economy, including a tourism drop blamed on Trump's policies keeping international visitors home.

Campus organizing

United Auto Workers canvassers collected 15,000 vote commitments from UNLV's campus before the midterms, a record, according to Rachel DeWald of Academic Workers of Nevada-UAW. On Election Day she said undergraduates were "really rallying behind Ford." Trejo also canvassed and said most young voters she spoke with were set on voting for Ford.

Cosgrove said that turnout was pivotal. "If you have a group that hasn't been showing up, and they show up, that's enough of the vote for somebody to win," she said. Read more in our analysis of Latino and young voters and other election coverage.

What to watch next

• Final results in the governor's race, since Ford's 51% to 44% margin comes from an unofficial tally reported Monday by the Nevada secretary of state's office.
• Whether Democrats follow through on issues that motivated young voters, which Cosgrove said will be needed to keep their support.
• Whether young voters swing again in future elections, a possibility Cosgrove raised if Democrats do not deliver.