LAS VEGAS (AP) - Final election results Tuesday confirmed a Democratic sweep of almost all statewide offices, taking control of the governor’s office for the first time in two decades and flipping seats in the offices of lieutenant governor, attorney general, treasurer and controller.
Republican Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, who presented the final results to the Nevada Supreme Court for a canvass of the votes Tuesday, was the only Republican to win statewide.
The results show Cegavske won a second term by 6,329 votes over Democratic state Assemblyman Nelson Araujo.
Clark County Commission Chair Steve Sisolak was elected governor, Kate Marshall will take the reins as lieutenant governor and Catherine Byrne ousted incumbent Ron Knecht as state controller.
Sisolak vowed in his campaign to stand up to President Donald Trump and the National Rifle Association. In his role as county commissioner, he rose to prominence following the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas, starting an online fundraiser that amassed millions for victims.
Cegavske, a 67-year-old former convenience store franchise operator from Las Vegas, previously served 12 years in the state Senate and six years in the state Assembly.
In the attorney general’s race, Senate majority leader Aaron Ford pulled off a narrow win over former assistant state attorney general Wes Duncan by about 4,500 votes. Joel Hansen of the Independent American Party captured 3 percent of the vote.
Ford, a 46-year-old attorney from Las Vegas, was elected to the state Senate in 2012 and re-elected in 2016.
In the race for state treasurer, Zach Conine defeated Bob Beers, a Republican former state lawmaker and Las Vegas City Council member. Conine, who captured 48 percent of the vote to Beers’ 47 percent, said in a statement after the election that he wants to use the office to promote financial literacy and higher education.
Overall, the final results show there were 975,980 ballots cast, with more than half coming during a two-week early voting period. Turnout represented 62 percent of active voters, which is a well above the 46 percent turnout in the last midterm election in 2014.
This year, a network of liberal groups and a political infrastructure set up by former longtime Nevada Sen. Harry Reid helped turn out Democratic voters, especially in the party’s stronghold of Clark County, which includes Las Vegas and the majority of the state’s population.
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