(The Center Square) – Gov. Joe Lombardo’s vague call for a special session earlier this week triggered a search to fill two vacant Republican Assembly seats.
That would keep Republicans in those seats ahead of the 2026 election. The next regular legislative session isn’t until 2027. Democrats have majorities in both the Assembly and Senate, but lack enough votes to override vetoes by Lombardo, a Republican.
“At some point over the next few months, I intend to call the Legislature back for a special session,” read Lombardo’s two-sentence special session announcement. “The goal will be to finish what the Legislature left unfinished – plain and simple.”
But what specific unfinished business Lombardo is referring to in Nevada’s 83rd legislative session is far from simple to decipher.
“The special session conversation is happening,” Lombardo said back in early August, offering a similarly vague reason to call together what would be the state’s 36th special session. “There’s some significant pieces of business that didn’t make it through the normal process, I think we should address.”
Speculation in early August was that the focus would be on Assembly Bill 238, a $1.4 billion tax incentive bill meant to draw Hollywood’s attention to the Silver State, and Lombardo’s crime bill, Senate Bill 457. Lombardo is a former sheriff of Clark County, home to Las Vegas.
The Governor’s Office did not respond to a request from The Center Square for comment. The Center Square was seeking to learn if similar legislation would be on the table for the special session, set to take place “over the next few months,” and how much the special session would cost taxpayers.
The special session announcement comes shortly after two Republican Assembly seats have opened up.
Assemblymember Toby Yurek, R-Clark County, resigned last week to serve as a policy adviser to Lombardo. Ken Gray, R-Douglas and Lyon counties, left the Assembly in August to join the National Cemetery Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
The vacant Assembly positions are both subject to elections in 2026, before the next general legislative session starts in February 2027.
By announcing a special session, Lombardo kicked off a county commission process that will fill the vacant positions with figures from the same political party. The two incoming Republicans will be appointed by the Clark County commission and a joint decision by the Douglas and Lyon county commissions.
None of the commissions responded to The Center Square when asked if the search to fill the seats had begun.
