The Audacity of a Failed Mayoral Candidate
Well, this is rich. Irina Hansen, who couldn’t even win a Las Vegas mayoral primary just last year, now thinks she can take on Governor Joe Lombardo for the top job in Nevada. Talk about delusions of grandeur.
Hansen, a longtime Realtor and salon owner, has announced her candidacy for Governor of Nevada in the 2026 election. This makes her likely the first Republican to dare challenge Governor Lombardo in a primary, while Democrat Attorney General Aaron Ford is already gearing up for the general election and former Governor Steve Sisolak is reportedly licking his chops for another shot.
You have to wonder what she’s thinking.
Here’s a governor who just told the Democrat-controlled legislature “no” more times than any governor in Nevada history. Lombardo’s final veto tally stood at 87, breaking his own record for most bills rejected from a single legislative session. And this woman thinks she can do better?
From Communist Romania to American Politics
To be fair, Hansen does have an interesting backstory. Irina Hansen was born in Timisoara, Romania and immigrated to the United States with her family in 1978 to escape the oppressive rule of a Communist dictator. She grew up in California with eleven siblings before moving to Las Vegas in 1998.
That experience of living under communism gives her some credibility when talking about big government overreach. She knows what happens when government gets too powerful. After establishing a successful salon and spa, Hansen witnessed what she described as the state’s overregulation and judicial corruption, which she claims destroyed her business.
But knowing what’s wrong and being able to fix it from the governor’s mansion are two very different things.
Is She Even Republican?
Here’s where things get interesting. Hansen calls herself a conservative and talks about “conservative Americans” in her campaign materials. But nowhere does she clearly state she’s running as a Republican. Her campaign website mentions being powered by “business owners, parents, and conservative Americans” but dodges the party question entirely.
Looking at her amateur website – and boy, is it amateur – you’ll find a mishmash of policy positions that sound conservative enough. But the real gem is her insufferable explanation of her terrible logo.
She actually has a whole section called “WHAT OUR LOGO REPRESENTS” where she explains that the shield represents “the Shield of Faith,” the eagle shows their commitment to “rise high above,” and the sword stands for “the living and powerful Word of God.”
Seriously? This reads like something a high school student would write for a church youth group project, not a serious gubernatorial campaign. She goes on to explain that the three silver stars represent Nevada’s mining history and the five stars symbolize “a new rising” and “hope, strength, and renewal.”
If you have to explain your logo with that much flowery language, maybe you need a better logo.
Take a look at some other highlights from her site: “Restoring trust in government,” “Strengthening the economy” (note the typo), and policy positions that read like they were written by someone who’s never run a serious political campaign before.
This is what passes for professional political communication these days?
Hansen’s False Attacks
But Hansen’s amateur website isn’t just embarrassing for its design it’s also spreading false information about Lombardo’s record. She directly attacks the governor several times. For example Hansen claims he didn’t introduce a school choice bill.
This is simply wrong. Lombardo introduced AB400 in 2023 (a comprehensive education bill covering school choice, charter schools, and early childhood literacy) and the Nevada Accountability in Education Act in 2025. Both were major school choice initiatives that included open enrollment policies, charter school funding, and various education reforms.
This year, some of his priorities successfully made their way into the final education compromise, including open enrollment policies and $7 million in transportation funding for students attending low-performing schools.
The final compromise bill also expanded the number of seats available in public charter schools and codified equal pay for charter school teachers, another Lombardo priority that was passed by the legislature. Lombardo and his allies heralded the results as a historic success for Nevada, with the governor saying they “passed historic education choice and accountability”.
So either Hansen doesn’t know what she’s talking about, or she’s deliberately misleading voters. Neither is a good look for someone who wants to be governor.
The Amateur Hour Platform
Hansen’s platform hits all the conservative talking points, but it feels like a copy-paste job from other campaigns. She wants to:
- Require voter ID and ban ballot harvesting
- Defend Second Amendment rights
- Reduce business regulations
- Support school choice
- Strengthen law enforcement
All fine positions. But here’s the thing: Lombardo is already doing this stuff, and he’s actually winning.
Election Integrity: Missing the Point
Hansen is making election integrity a central campaign issue. But this shows how out of touch she really is with what’s happening in Nevada politics.
Nevada voters already passed a voter ID ballot question in 2024, and they’ll need to approve it again in 2026 to make it part of the state constitution.
Democrats in the legislature tried to pass a watered-down voter ID bill full of loopholes that would have undermined real election security. Lombardo vetoed it, saying the bill created inconsistencies for mail ballots and didn’t match what voters actually wanted.
This actually shows Lombardo protecting election integrity by refusing to sign bad legislation. But Hansen apparently doesn’t understand the difference between smart governance and just saying yes to everything that sounds conservative.
Lombardo called Nevada’s slow election results a “national embarrassment” and vowed to fix the process. He’s proposed eliminating the law that allows ballots postmarked on Election Day to be counted for up to four days afterward. He’s also pushed for real voter ID requirements, not the Democrat nonsense bill he rightly vetoed.
Why This Matters to Conservatives
For limited government conservatives, Hansen’s challenge is more annoying than threatening. We finally have a governor who’s proven he can stop bad Democrat bills, and now we’re supposed to get excited about someone who lost a mayoral race?
Look at Lombardo’s record. After just two sessions, Lombardo has chopped down 162 bills from the Democrat controlled state legislature. That’s not just impressive, it’s exactly what conservatives said they wanted: A governor who would stand up to Democrat overreach and protect taxpayers from bad legislation..
The Bottom Line
Hansen is billing this as a grassroots movement. Her campaign, she said, is not supported by political insiders or party elites but is a movement led by the people of Nevada. Translation: nobody with serious political experience thinks this is a good idea.
The big question is whether Nevada Republicans will fall for amateur hour politics or stick with a proven winner. Do you reward success at stopping bad Democrat bills? Or do you take a chance on someone whose biggest political accomplishment is losing a local race?
For now, conservatives should ask themselves: Do we really want to risk what we’ve built with Lombardo for someone who can’t even format her website properly?
The 2026 primary will tell us if Nevada Republicans have learned anything about the difference between serious conservative governance and political theater.
This article was written with the assistance of AI. Please verify information and consult additional sources as needed.
