In the California governor’s race, there’s a new sheriff in town.
RELATED: Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco announces California governor run in 2026
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco on Monday, Feb. 17, kicked off his gubernatorial bid before hundreds of cheering supporters in downtown Riverside. The Republican hopes to defy the odds and become California’s first GOP governor since Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2003.
Here are five things to know about Bianco as he tries to succeed term-limited Gov. Gavin Newsom.
He came to California by way of Utah
Bianco was born in 1967 at Hill Air Force Base in Ogden, Utah, and grew up in “a small mining town” as the oldest of three boys, according to his 2022 campaign website for sheriff.
“My interest in Law Enforcement actually began as a teenager after I had a ‘business encounter’ with a State Highway Patrol Officer,” his campaign bio states.
“In addition to him providing me with a ‘promise to appear,’ he also sparked my interest in Law Enforcement. The positive manner in which he spoke to me and the things he said, has stayed with me to this day and influences the way I currently interact with youth.”
During Monday’s announcement, Bianco said he moved to California in 1989 “in search of the California Dream. I got a job, I bought a house, I married a beauty queen and I raised a family.”
Bianco started at the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department after graduating at the top of his class from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Academy, per his sheriff’s campaign bio.
He ran unsuccessfully for Riverside County sheriff in 2014 before unseating incumbent Sheriff Stan Sniff four years later. Bianco, who lives in the unincorporated community of Woodcrest near Riverside and attends Sandals Church, was reelected in 2022 with 61% of the vote.
COVID made him famous
Bianco’s national profile got a boost in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic when he called out Newsom while announcing he wouldn’t enforce the governor’s business restrictions intended to fight the virus’s spread.
“Leaders do not threaten, attempt to intimidate or cause fear,” Bianco said in a YouTube video. “Bullies do.”
The sheriff’s defiance earned him airtime on Fox News and other conservative media. It also earned Bianco scorn from public health experts, especially when he said he wouldn’t require jail employees to be vaccinated against COVID, though unvaccinated staff had to be regularly tested for the virus.
He’s a former Oath Keeper
The sheriff’s past membership in the Oath Keepers, an anti-government militia whose leaders were convicted of crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot, is sure to come up during the campaign.
Bianco admitted to paying one-year’s dues to the group in 2014 before letting his membership expire. The sheriff has said he doesn’t remember joining the Oath Keepers and while he condemned what happened Jan. 6, Bianco also has said the Oath Keepers’ aims are misunderstood.
“If you love America, if you’re proud to be an American and you support the Constitution, you are labeled as an extremist,” he told public radio in 2021.
He loves Donald Trump
Bianco remains loyal to the president despite Donald Trump’s overall unpopularity in blue-state California.
In 2024, he endorsed Trump in a tongue-in-cheek video in which he quipped: “It’s time we put a felon in the White House.”
After Trump won the November election, Bianco shared a video on social media of what appeared to be a snippet of a phone call between himself and the president.
Republicans love Bianco
The sheriff enjoys an enthusiastic following from California conservatives who see him as a ray of hope in a state they say was ruined by liberal policies.
Those at Monday’s announcement included a who’s who of Inland Empire GOP electeds, from Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona, and Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin to firebrand GOP Assemblymember Bill Essayli from Corona.
A website selling Bianco-for-governor merchandise offers hats, T-shirts and other gear featuring a stylized version of Bianco looking like an Old West lawman with a cowboy hat, billowing mustache and bandana.
“Only the sheriff can save us now,” read one sign at Monday’s announcement.