Candidate Who Could Impact Nevada Governor’s Race Has Deep Poker Roots

Independent Nevada gubernatorial candidate Danielle Ford has a deep poker background and once made a CSOP final table. She advocates teaching poker in schools, without gambling, and criticizes federal gambling tax reform. The election will be held on November 3.

When Danielle Ford reflects on her journey in Nevada politics—from winning a State Board of Education election to making the nearly futile gamble of running for governor of Nevada as an independent—she says it all traces back to poker.

Ford is a member of the Nevada State Board of Education and is running for governor against incumbent Republican Governor Joe Lombardo and Democratic challenger Aaron Ford, who is not related to her. A longtime poker player, she connects her poker mindset and community ties to her professional career.

“When I look back at all the people who helped me get to the next step in my life, they were all connected to the poker community in some way, which is really interesting,” Ford told PokerNews earlier this month while discussing her poker background and her bid for Nevada’s top office.

Although she is unlikely to win next week, Ford’s small campaign has drawn attention. The independent candidate was thrust into the national spotlight this week amid allegations that her campaign could confuse voters and siphon votes from the Democratic opponent with the same surname, potentially pushing the Republican incumbent across the finish line in a tight race.

One Chip and a Chair

Ford’s campaign website says she is running to “bring practical, systemic fixes to the public systems Nevada families rely on every day.” She began playing poker in 2011 and studied it seriously for a year while teaching herself marketing on YouTube. “I read all the books,” Ford said.

Ford eventually made it to the World Series of Poker (WSOP), where she met Daniel Makowsky of poker website PokerAti, who hired Ford as a writer. She also connected with Sillybandz founder Robert Croak, who hired Ford to produce videos for the serial entrepreneur’s latest venture. Ford said both jobs gave her valuable skills that were critical to her successful 2018 campaign for the Clark County School District Board and her election to the Nevada State Board of Education in 2024.

Later, when she decided to run for Nevada’s top office as an independent, it was at the Charity Series of Poker (CSOP)—where she ultimately made the final table—that she met members of her campaign team.

For Ford, the connection between poker and independent politics is obvious.

“The kind of person who would run for a nonpartisan seat in an election with well-funded, politically connected opponents after calculating the risk,” she said, “is the kind of person who is like a poker player.”

Running as a nonpartisan candidate does carry risks. Most polls of the gubernatorial race do not even include Ford—who qualified for the ballot by collecting signatures—and the polls show a tight contest between the Republican and Democratic candidates.

Ford acknowledged that winning the governor’s race as an independent is “almost impossible,” “unless you really look at the numbers, think about it like you would a poker game, and then say, ‘This is risky, but it’s possible.’”

“You can go up against the very best players, the ones with the best odds, and it doesn’t matter—you just need to play better than them,” she said. “One chip, one chair.”

But Ford’s independent campaign has also sparked controversy. On October 20, The Nevada Independent reported that an email calling Ford “Nevada’s AOC,” referring to progressive New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, appeared to be linked to Republican political operatives and may have been an attempt to confuse voters. Ocasio-Cortez supported Democrat Aaron Ford, not Danielle Ford, in the race.

Several national media figures weighed in on the campaign, including political reporters David Weigel and Sam Stein.

Asked for comment, Ford referred PokerNews to a video she posted on Facebook on October 25, in which she denied any connection to the emails and accused both parties of spreading misinformation about her campaign. Ford also told PokerNews that she planned to issue a statement about the controversy.

“First Democrats tell you I’m a spoiler candidate and that people will accidentally vote for me ... now they’re telling you that I’m actually part of this Republican organized crime syndicate trying to take back the election for Republicans,” Ford said in the video.

“So Democrats tell their members that I’m a MAGA agent, and then Republicans send emails saying I’m an AOC agent.”

Poker in Every Classroom

Poker is not just a weekend activity for Ford; it is also part of her political platform. The State Board of Education member and advocate of whole-child education told PokerNews that she believes poker should be taught in “every classroom,” “of course, without the gambling component.”

“I’ve said it a million times,” Ford said, noting that she used poker to teach her own children math. “I absolutely support teaching poker in schools. It’s not gambling unless you’re betting money. It’s a game of skill. I think it’s more complex than chess, especially because it involves so many human factors and so many different situations can arise.”

But Ford said that because of the state’s standardized curriculum and “the way we are flooded by these testing companies,” Nevada is already “drawing dead” when it comes to bringing poker into schools.

“I absolutely support it. It’s not gambling unless you’re betting money. It’s a game of skill.”

Ford also has views on federal issues affecting Nevadans, including a controversial gambling tax reform that caps gambling-loss deductions at 90% of winnings. “I don’t think anyone thinks that’s fair,” she said, noting that poker players and other gamblers “often have losing years overall.”

“Not everyone who plays poker just plays a few weekends in Las Vegas every year. Some people depend on it for their livelihood and support entire families. So I absolutely do not appreciate the federal government, on a whim, stuffing something into a massive bill that affects Nevada families like this.”

Ford is unlikely to become Nevada’s next governor. But as long as her name is on the ballot, she has one chip and one chair.

Nevada’s gubernatorial election will be held on Tuesday, November 3.

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