Nevada's governor-elect, Aaron Ford, has named the three people who will run his transition into the governor's office and launched a public transition website, moving quickly to organise the handover less than two weeks after he won the November 3 election.
Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal via News In Las Vegas
Ford, a Democrat who currently serves as Nevada's attorney general, announced the team on Wednesday, November 11, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Two of the three leaders come directly from his winning campaign. He also opened a transition website, aaronfordtransition.com, where the team will post updates, where residents can share ideas, and where people who want to join the incoming administration can submit their information.
Who is leading the transition
Molly Forgey will run the transition as its executive director. The Review-Journal described her as a politics veteran whose past work includes successful congressional campaigns and the Nevada State Democratic Party, among other positions.
Jorge Costa will serve as Forgey's deputy. He was the political director of Ford's campaign for governor. Tai Sims will act as the transition's chief spokesperson; Sims previously served as communications director for the Ford campaign.
In a statement reported by the Review-Journal, Ford said: "My priority is to ensure Nevada has a seamless, responsible transition of power." He said the group he chose "brings deep experience across the state and local government" and added that its members have a clear understanding of the challenges Nevada families face.
The road from election night to the capitol
Ford defeated Republican Governor Joe Lombardo, who served one term, in the November 3 election. The Associated Press called the race just before dawn on election night, in what was reported as a historic result: Ford will be Nevada's first Black governor, having already broken barriers as the state's first Black Senate majority leader and its first Black attorney general, a post he has held since 2019 with affordability at the centre of his agenda.
Nevada counties were slated to certify all election results on Friday, November 13, according to the Review-Journal. Ford is scheduled to be inaugurated on January 4 in Carson City, the state capital.
Ford will be in office less than a month before he needs to make two key appointments to the Nevada Gaming Control Board, the body that regulates the state's casino industry — one of the most consequential early decisions any Nevada governor makes, given gaming's weight in the state economy.
What happens next
Between now and January 4, the transition team led by Forgey, Costa and Sims will staff the incoming administration, take applications and ideas through the transition website, and prepare Ford's first decisions. The first milestones are close together: county certification of results on Friday, the January 4 inauguration in Carson City, and the two Gaming Control Board appointments due within his first month in office.
For Nevada residents — including the state's growing South Asian and Punjabi communities in Las Vegas and Reno — the open application and ideas process on aaronfordtransition.com is the incoming administration's stated channel for anyone seeking a role or raising a priority before the new government takes office.