Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco officially announced Monday, Feb. 17, that he’ll run for governor in 2026, hoping a campaign centered on fighting crime and upending Sacramento can overcome questions about his background and recent challenges for Republicans seeking statewide office.
Bianco, a Republican, launched his bid before supporters at Avila’s 1929, a downtown Riverside venue.
RELATED: Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco could announce run for governor on Feb. 17
Holding red, white and blue “Bianco Governor” signs, people lined outside Avila’s 1929 well before Bianco’s scheduled 11:30 a.m. announcement.
Inside, a packed room gathered in front of a podium under a blue “Bianco for Governor” banner.
“Let’s Go Bianco!” chants started shortly after 11 a.m. Others changed “We want Bianco! We want Bianco!” Supporters carried signs saying “California is Home. You Don’t Have to Move” and “Only the sheriff can save us now.”
Bianco protesters gathered on a street corner, meanwhile, holding signs like “Under Bianco: Record In-Custody Deaths!” and “CA need a fair governor for all people, not Chad Bianco.”
Before Monday’s announcement, Bianco’s team sent an email touting his work “to stabilize the (Riverside County Sheriff’s Department’s) finances, increase staffing, and rebuild partnerships with other law enforcement agencies.”
“Sheriff Bianco faces the reality of California’s failed public policies on a daily basis,” the email states. “He has been a strong voice for reforming state law to once again ensure public safety across California.”
Bianco “was a leader and vocal advocate for Proposition 36,” a successful 2024 ballot measure that tightened punishments for certain drug and theft offenses in what conservatives hailed as a rebuke of progressive criminal justice reform, the email added.
The gubernatorial race is for an open seat. Democrat Gavin Newsom, California’s governor since 2018, can’t run for reelection due to term limits.
A number of candidates on the Democratic side have already announced for governor, including former state Senate President Toni Atkins, Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and former state Controller Betty Yee.
There’s also speculation that 2024 Democratic presidential nominee and former Vice President Kamala Harris and former Orange County Democratic Congressmember Katie Porter will run. Democrat and California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a rumored candidate, said this month he’s not entering the race.
On the GOP side, former Fox News host Steve Hilton is rumored to be eyeing a 2026 bid for governor. The gubernatorial election’s timing works out well for Bianco, whose term as sheriff doesn’t end until 2028 thanks to a state law that shifted California sheriffs’ elections to presidential election years.
California’s top-two primary system sends the two biggest vote-getters, regardless of party, to the November general election. Usually, a Republican and a Democrat advance to November.
From there, the odds heavily favor Democrats.
California, a blue state, hasn’t elected a Republican to a statewide office since Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006 — and the 2018 and 2022 gubernatorial elections were called for Newsom minutes after polls closed.
A 30-year department veteran, Bianco unseated incumbent Stan Sniff in 2018 to lead Riverside County’s largest law enforcement agency. He was reelected in 2022 with 61% of the vote.
As sheriff and county coroner, Bianco oversees a department with a roughly $1 billion budget and more than 4,000 employees. The department protects the public, runs five jails, conducts search-and-rescue operations and guards courtrooms in a county of roughly 2.5 million people that rivals New Jersey in square mileage.
As sheriff, Bianco has cultivated a reputation as a plain-spoken voice for law and order with an active social media presence who blames liberal judges and Sacramento’s Democratic leadership for coddling criminals and endangering law-abiding citizens.
A frequent guest on Fox News and other conservative media, Bianco endeared himself to the right with his open defiance of, and unwillingness to enforce, Newsom’s COVID-19 mandates. He endorsed Republican Larry Elder, who ran in the failed 2021 Newsom recall election.
During the pandemic, Bianco expressed skepticism about the COVID vaccine’s effectiveness. He has said he was “anti-vax for Chad” and brushed off concerns about COVID spreading in jails by saying: “If you are afraid to go to jail and catch the virus, then don’t go to jail, don’t break the law.”
He also didn’t require jail employees to be vaccinated, though unvaccinated staff had to be tested regularly for the virus. At least two of Bianco’s deputies, one assigned to the administrative office and another believed to have been infected by a jail inmate, died from COVID during the pandemic.
Bianco, who has enjoyed strong support from the sheriff’s deputies union, is an unabashed supporter of President Donald Trump. He endorsed the president’s campaign last year, quipping in a video: “It’s time we put a felon in the White House.”
While Bianco’s Trump support will win over GOP voters, it could be a liability should he advance to the general election. Trump has historically been an unpopular figure in California.
Bianco also supports efforts to bolster border security. But on Feb. 6, Bianco posted an Instagram video in which he said his deputies “have not, are not and will not engage in any type of immigration enforcement. That is the sole responsibility of the federal government.”
He added he’d do everything possible “within the confines of the sanctuary state laws of California to cooperate with (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) to remove criminals from our jails” and that he’d fight to reform “an extremely dangerous sanctuary state law” restricting local law enforcement’s ability to work with federal immigration authorities.
While California conservatives are eager to see Bianco run, his critics see an unaccountable loudmouth with a troublesome track record.
In 2014, Bianco admitted to being a dues-paying member of the Oath Keepers, a far-right militia whose leaders were convicted of charges stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol riot. Bianco in 2021 said he only paid for a year’s membership and forgot he belonged to the group.
His tenure as sheriff faces scrutiny, especially for a series of jail inmate deaths that have led to wrongful death lawsuits. Bianco’s department is currently the focus of a California attorney general civil rights investigation, a probe he said is politically motivated.
California’s gubernatorial primary is June 2, 2026.