Real estate mogul Robert Bigelow and other corporate real estate interests are bankrolling Joe Lombardo’s reelection campaign after the governor vetoed legislation to lower housing costs, protect renters, and prevent Wall Street firms from pricing Nevadans out of purchasing a home.
Reminder: Bigelow is best known for evicting low income families during a global pandemic and spending $30 million to buy Lombardo the governor’s mansion. As foreclosure and evictions skyrocketed, Lombardo made Bigelow a special guest at his 2025 State of the State.
In total, real estate interests donated a whopping $1.6 million to Lombardo in 2025. While Lombardo continues to put wealthy special interests over everyday Nevadans, a recent survey found that under Lombardo, an overwhelming majority of Nevadans think housing is unaffordable. A majority of homes for sale are unaffordable to most buyers in Las Vegas, leading one in three Nevadans considering leaving the state because of rising housing costs.
Read more below:
Nevada Independent: Lombardo’s 2025 campaign fundraising heavily reliant on donors using legal loophole to give more
- [L]eading the way in direct donations to Lombardo’s campaign were two well-known Nevada donors — Bigelow and Walters.
- Bigelow, the owner of the Budget Suites of America hotel chain and Lombardo’s top donor for his 2022 gubernatorial bid, gave $220,000 through 22 companies, all tied to a single address.
- All of Bigelow’s donations came on Dec. 10, which was the first day that donations were legally allowed after the Legislature’s fall special session prompted a donating blackout period. These were Bigelow’s first political donations to any candidate since 2022.
- Donors tied to the real estate and development sector — which can include anything from construction and commercial real estate groups to private real estate agents — contributed about $1.6 million.
- However, Lombardo faced backlash from Democrats for his veto of other housing bills, including ones that would have capped rent increases for seniors and changed the state’s eviction process that requires a tenant to file an initial court filing, not the landlord.
- He also reportedly told legislators to vote against a bill to place a cap on annual corporate homebuying after vetoing a similar proposal two years earlier.
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