As the 2025 legislative session begins, Joe Lombardo’s veto messages from the 2023 legislative session will be read on the Assembly floor. Lombardo’s messages do a lazy and disingenuous job of explaining why he vetoed legislation that would have lowered the costs of housing and prescription drugs so here are the facts: 

Lombardo’s gubernatorial campaign was bankrolled by a slumlord billionaire and months later he vetoed several bills that would have lowered housing costs for Nevada families. To make matters worse, while everyday families struggle to make ends meet, he hired a former lobbyist who worked for a corporate landlord that also stood to benefit directly from Lombardo’s anti-tenant vetoes as his chief of staff. 

Another report found that after vetoing a bill that would have lowered the price of Medicare-negotiated prescription drugs for all Nevadans, Lombardo raked in nearly $100,000 in campaign cash from big drug companies. Prior to his veto, which “cited many arguments made by the [pharmaceutical] industry,” Lombardo had only received $11,000 from pharma interests. 

All of this comes after Lombardo raked in millions from special interests to his inaugural committee, which he set up as a dark money group, breaking with years of bipartisan precedent of disclosing inaugural donors. Lombardo then shielded himself from having to be transparent with Nevadans about who funded his inaugural committee when he vetoed SB60, which would have required him to disclose donors to his inaugural committee. Lombardo justified his veto by saying the bill should require “disclosure of activities beyond a single office” (his own), but that was a phony excuse as the bill would have applied to all statewide constitutional offices. 

Combine these vetoes with others, like Lombardo’s veto of guaranteed school meals for all students and it’s clear that Lombardo will always put his special interest donors and own political self-interest above lowering costs for Nevadans. 

Nevada State Democratic Party spokesperson Tai Sims:

“No veto message excuse can change the facts: Joe Lombardo vetoed legislation that would have lowered costs for Nevadans and in return received donations for his upcoming campaign.”