The Republicans have won the gubernatorial election in the US state of Nevada after a long nail-biter.

Conservative Joe Lombardo defeated Democratic incumbent Steve Sisolak, the AP news agency and several television networks - including NBC, CNN and Fox News - reported based on ballot counts. Lombardo was supported in the election campaign by former Republican President Donald Trump.

The US midterm elections with votes for hundreds of congressional seats and numerous governorships in the states had already taken place on Tuesday. The counting of the votes in Nevada took a particularly long time because of the close race between the two opponents and because of electoral peculiarities in the state. In the elections, governorships in 36 US states were up for election. It is the most powerful office in a federal state, comparable to that of a prime minister in Germany.