Nevada’s attorney general race is “open” with current attorney general, Democrat Aaron Ford, term-limited and now running for governor.
The race has attracted two ambitious Democrats: state Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro and current Nevada Treasurer Zack Conine.
Cannizzaro, 43, is the first female Nevada state Senate majority leader. First elected to the Senate in 2016, Cannizzaro narrowly defeated Republican Victoria Seaman. She was re-elected in 2020 and 2024.
In 2011, Cannizzaro joined the Clark County DA’s office, leaving in 2022. She currently works for the Richard Harris personal injury law firm. Her husband, Nate Ring, is a Las Vegas-based labor lawyer.
Conine, 44, is term-limited as treasurer. He was first elected treasurer in 2018 in a narrow win over former Las Vegas City Councilman Bob Beers by less than 1%. He won re-election in 2022, defeating GOP firebrand Michele Fiore in another close race (1.7%).
Prior to entering office, Conine worked in gaming, finance and consulting. He was admitted to the bar in 2015. His wife, Layke, an attorney, is executive director of the Nevada Cannabis Association.
Cannizzaro is backed by a key operative of the “Reid Machine”, Nevada’s powerful Democratic Party establishment and touts herself as most qualified with sixteen years of jury trial experience.
Conine has highlighted his executive experience and work as a business attorney.
The race for attorney general has become the most vitriolic– and expensive– Democratic primary fight in Nevada.
A May 20 debate intended as a discussion of substantive policy issues devolved into nasty personal attacks as both candidates claimed their opponent lacked integrity and was corrupt.
The two candidates made their disdain for one another manifest throughout the debate.
Cannizzaro claimed Conine’s integrity was “absolutely” compromised because Conine has taken $2.5 million since 2024 from cryptocurrency multi-millionaire Jeffrey Berns for Conine’s PAC.
A massive portion of Conine’s fundraising comes from Berns, founder and CEO of Blockchains. The crypto mogul also contributed $10,000 to Conine’s campaign in 2020 and another $60,000 to Conine’s PAC in 2021.
Blockchains purchased 67,000 acres of high desert land in Storey County paying $170 million in 2018.
In 2021, Berns made headlines in Nevada by proposing “Innovation Zones” to allow private companies to form their own municipal governments and build a city run on cryptocurrency. They would run their own schools, collect their own taxes, and operate their own courts.
Cannizzaro legislatively shelved Berns’ plan for a Blockchain city. Now, he’s bankrolling her primary opponent.
Conine hit back even harder.
He said Cannizzaro’s integrity “was compromised well before” she started taking payday lender industry contributions. Payday “predatory” lenders, like Dollar Loan Center’s owners, have pumped nearly $100,000 into her campaigns.
She also took money from people who fought to keep puppy mills legal in Nevada.
And NV Energy, Nevada’s unloved monopoly utility, has given Cannizzaro nearly three times what they gave Conine—almost $100,000.
Democrats Cannizzaro and Conine have settled on similar campaign themes as fighters who will take on President Trump.
Both have expressed opposition to the death penalty, and both are voting no on the Voter ID initiative this November.
While Democrats are slinging mud at each other, Republicans Andriana Guzman Fralick and Danny Tarkanian are facing off in their own primary contest.
Gov. Lombardo has endorsed Fralick. She’s the candidate with conservative credentials and the legal experience to be attorney general.
Tarkanian, 64, actively practiced law for 7-8 years before shifting his career away from law in 1995 to pursue college basketball coaching, real estate investments and wage ten campaigns for various political offices.
Fralick, 57, has spent 23 years as a practicing and litigating attorney. Her experience includes public service as general counsel to Republican Governor Jim Gibbons, chief deputy D.A. for Carson City, counsel for the Nevada Commission on Ethics and managing her own private practice since 2019.
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