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

What happened

Young voters played a major role in Democrat Aaron Ford's win over Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo, the Las Vegas Sun reported in a Spanish-language story. Ford, now governor-elect, won 51% to 44%, a margin of more than 83,000 votes, according to the unofficial count from the Nevada Secretary of State's office as of Monday morning. The race had been expected to be close.

Voters ages 18 to 24 made up about 12% of Nevada's electorate and swung 35 points toward Democrats compared with 2024, The New York Times reported, according to the Sun. Democrats also won every major statewide race. Teresa Benítez-Thompson became the first Democrat to win northern Nevada's 2nd Congressional District, which was created after the 1980 census.

Why young voters turned out

Immigration and the cost of living

Cynthia Trejo, a 24-year-old member of Culinary Workers Union Local 226 in Las Vegas, voted for the first time this year. She told the Sun that the treatment of people in deportations drove her to the polls, noting that her father is an immigrant who works hard but still has no voice.

Carlos Alba, a 26-year-old Nevada native who also voted for Democrats, pointed to rent and the cost of owning a home, which he described as nearly out of reach. He said voting was a way for his generation to tip the balance a little in its favor.

What local professors saw

Sondra Cosgrove, a professor at the College of Southern Nevada, said her students were more motivated this year than in 2024 because they oppose President Donald Trump, reject his immigration policies and are struggling with inflation. She said that two years ago many students told her they would not vote, while this year more of them asked for help deciding.

UNLV professor David Damore said the shift matched national trends, with voters under 30 delivering one of the largest Democratic margins in the country and first-time voters favoring Democrats by a ratio of two to one in national exit polls. He said young voters are the most affected by artificial intelligence, affordability and climate change, issues on which the parties took very different positions.

The national picture

A sharp change from 2024

In 2024, young voters nationwide split almost evenly between Trump and Kamala Harris, then the Democratic presidential nominee, 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 leaned Democratic in every Senate race where the party won a seat, including Texas, Kansas, Iowa, Ohio and North Carolina, the Sun reported.

Opposition to Trump

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

Campus organizing and the Ford campaign

Canvassers with the United Auto Workers collected a record 15,000 vote pledges on the UNLV campus before the midterms, according to Rachel DeWald of Nevada Academic Workers-UAW. On Election Day, DeWald told the Sun the campus saw record turnout, especially among undergraduates. Trejo, who also worked as an election activist, said most young voters she spoke with were set on voting for Ford.

Most voters nationwide said inflation caused their families at least moderate hardship over the past year, and that hardship was central to Ford's campaign. Ford tied Lombardo to the region's declining economy, including a drop in tourism that the Sun said was attributed to Trump policies that kept international visitors home.

The Sun's report adds detail to earlier analysis of how the 2026 vote unfolded. For more, see our look at Latino and young voters in Nevada's Democratic wave and our ongoing 2026 election coverage.

What to watch next

• Final results: the Sun's figures came from the Nevada Secretary of State's unofficial count as of Monday morning.
• Cosgrove said Democrats will need to deliver on the issues that motivated young voters, or those voters could shift again.