Cisco Aguilar (D), Jim Marchant (R), Ross Crane (L), and Janine Hansen (I) are running for Nevada secretary of state on November 8, 2022. Incumbent Barbara Cegavske (R) can not run for re-election due to term limits. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, this race is “arguably the most important on the statewide ballot in November, outside of only the races for U.S. Senate and governor, as the victor will be able to exert control over how elections are conducted in Nevada for the next four years.”
Aguilar worked as special legal counsel to the chancellor of the Nevada System of Higher Education and the Andre Agassi Foundation for Education. Former governors Jim Gibbons (R) and Brian Sandoval (R) both appointed Aguilar to the Nevada Athletic Commission as a boxing and mixed martial arts regulator. Aguilar says he is running for secretary of state because “[m]ore than ever, we need to defend every eligible American’s right to vote, remove barriers to voter participation, and make our elections as transparent as possible to maintain the public trust…I am committed to building on the work that many have started in a bi-partisan way, including modernizing, safeguarding and strengthening our democracy, our elections process and the voting rights of every Nevadan.” Aguilar has said Marchant would “use this position in a political way, and that’s detrimental…It really should be neutral, it should be impartial, it should be nonpartisan.”
Marchant represented District 37 in the Nevada State Assembly from 2017 to 2021. Marchant says he is running for secretary of state because “Nevadans want to see the Secretary of State address their concerns about doing business and conducting fair and transparent elections in our state. I’m listening.” Marchant’s campaign website says, “In 2020 [he] ran for Congress for Nevada’s Congressional District 4 and was a victim of election fraud.” According to Marchant, “We haven’t, in Nevada, elected anybody since 2006…They have been installed by the deep state cabal.” If elected, Marchant says his “number one priority [would] be to overhaul the fraudulent election system in Nevada” by repealing universal mail-in voting, requiring voter ID, allowing candidates to request election audits at their own expense, and mandating the use of paper ballots instead of electronic voting machines.
This is one of 27 elections for secretary of state taking place in 2022. All but three states have a secretary of state. Although the specific duties and powers of the office vary from state to state, secretaries of state are often responsible for the maintenance of voter rolls and for administering elections. Other common responsibilities include registering businesses, maintaining state records, and certifying official documents. There are currently 27 Republican secretaries of state and 20 Democratic secretaries of state. Click here for an overview of all 27 secretary of state elections taking place in 2022.
A state government triplex refers to a situation where the governor, attorney general, and secretary of state are all members of the same political party.
As of October 17, 2022, there are 23 Republican triplexes, 18 Democratic triplexes, and 9 divided governments where neither party holds triplex control. Nevada does not have a state government triplex.