Nevada voters will decide in November on 31% of the state’s District Court judges, after the other two-thirds were retained without opposition following a 10-day judicial candidate filing period that closed Friday, the Associated Press reported. The filings statewide produced 155 candidates for Nevada’s judiciary, which also includes elections for two Nevada Supreme Court seats plus races for justices of the peace and municipal court judges.
Clark County will vote on judges for 20 of the 58 District Court civil/criminal and family judge positions in November. In Washoe County, voters will decide three of the 16 District Court seats: one through the retirement of the sitting judge, and another due to a switch by family Judge Bridget Robb, who gave up her Department 13 seat to file in Department 10, setting up a race that also involves civil/criminal Judge Kathleen Sigurdson.
The AP coverage described several unusual filing situations in Clark County. Two District Court seats were filled Friday after incumbent judges did not file for re-election. In a Clark County family court race set for a repeat of a 2024 contest, current Judge Kerri Maxey will face attorney Paul Michel Gaudet in Department N; Gaudet was appointed to the seat in 2023 by Gov. Joe Lombardo. Maxey previously won the election for the remaining two years of that term with 54% of the vote.
A justice court race expected to draw attention is in Nye County, where suspended Justice of the Peace Michele Fiore drew three opponents: attorney Michael Foley, a substitute judge put into place a year ago by Nye County commissioners, and two non-attorney Pahrump residents, occupational therapist Scott Oakley and Richard Hamilton, who ran for the seat in 2018.
Nevada law allows non-lawyers to serve as justices of the peace in small counties with populations under 100,000, though non-attorney judges are required to follow the state’s Code of Judicial Conduct and avoid conflicts of interest. The AP story also laid out the election schedule: the primary is June 9 and the general election is Nov. 3.
UNLV history professor Michael Green, who studies Nevada elections, said midterm elections often become a referendum on what is happening in Washington, D.C., even if he said exceptions have occurred. Green said, “I think 2026 is not going to be an exception. There will be a lot of fighting about the marquee races,” adding that the effects could filter down as campaigns become more partisan and voters consult “the endorsement lists (in judicial races).”
Green suggested that any midterm upheaval might benefit Fiore, arguing that “Having several people in the race means you’re very likely to split the vote of the people who wouldn’t vote for her.” He also said, “Where she’s running, having the (Trump) pardon does not hurt her.” The AP story said Fiore received a pardon from President Donald Trump in April after being convicted in 2024 on six counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
On the broader statewide judiciary, Nevada Supreme Court Chief Justice Douglas Herndon and Justice Kristina Pickering did not draw opposition and were re-elected to six-year terms. They were the only members of the seven-judge panel up for election this year.
In Clark County, seven District Court judges—including civil/criminal judges Mark Denton, Gloria Sturman, Ron Israel and Erika Ballou, and family court judges Robert Teuton, Art Ritchie and Vincent Ochoa—did not seek re-election. The AP reported that Colleen Brown was the single candidate for Ballou’s Department 24 seat, while Emily McFarling was the lone candidate for Ritchie’s Department H seat. It also reported that Ballou was serving a six-month suspension without pay imposed by the Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline in September after she refused to comply with Nevada Supreme Court orders in a criminal case.
Denton, the longest-serving judge in Clark County, announced his retirement after 30 years in Department 13. Discovery Commissioner Adam Ganz filed for the seat on Jan. 6 and was unopposed until Friday, when attorney Robert Kurth and public defender Christopher Howell entered the race. Sturman announced she would not seek re-election to Department 26 and would retire Feb. 7; the seat drew prosecutor Pete Thunell, state bar counsel Daniel Hooge, and Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Jessica Goodey. The AP reported that Israel did not provide a reason for ending his judicial career, and that two candidates—Noreen DeMonte and Danielle Tamu—will seek Department 28.
The AP story also reported that Nevada’s family court, added in 1993 with six departments, has grown to 26. Green said the expansion and specialization of the courts make it difficult for voters, noting that “Most of the voters are not attorneys,” and said voters may instead rely on endorsement lists compiled by attorneys.
Elections are set for June 9 in the primary and Nov. 3 in the general election, with the filings shaping a District Court slate that includes multiple contested races in Clark County and a multi-candidate challenge involving Fiore in Nye County. The AP story said it was originally published by The Nevada Independent and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.