Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford won the race for governor on Tuesday, unseating Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo in one of the tightest contests on the national map. The Democrat will be the first Black governor in Nevada history and the first Black governor ever elected in a state west of the Mississippi River.

The win adds one more first to a career full of them. Ford was the first Black majority leader of the Nevada Senate and later the state's first Black attorney general. Before he entered politics in 2012, he taught math and practiced law.

Ford built his campaign around the cost of living in a state where gas has topped $5 a gallon and tourism has slowed. He promised to revive bills that Lombardo vetoed, including limits on how many homes large corporations can buy and a plan to let the state negotiate lower drug prices for Medicaid.

A clean sweep down the ballot

Democrats did more than win the top job. They captured all six statewide offices for the first time since 1962, flipping three seats that Republicans held. Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro was elected attorney general to succeed Ford. The party also won a two-thirds supermajority in the state Assembly.

Lombardo, a former Las Vegas sheriff, ran on raises for teachers and state workers plus new money for middle-income housing. He outspent Ford on television, but voters in both Reno and Las Vegas told reporters they wanted a change in direction.

A new class of Black governors

Ford is part of a historic group. Before this week only three Black Americans had ever been elected governor of a state. Now Maryland's Wes Moore has won a second term. He will be joined by Keisha Lance Bottoms in Georgia, Byron Donalds in Florida, David Crowley in Wisconsin and Ford in Nevada, the first time several elected Black governors will serve side by side.

Ford thanked volunteers at a Las Vegas watch party and said the result belonged to every family that has struggled to keep up with rising costs. He takes office in January.