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 targeting Sacramento’s Democratic leadership can overcome questions about his background and recent challenges for Republicans seeking statewide office.
Bianco, a Republican, launched his bid before hundreds of enthusiastic, sign-waving supporters at Avila’s 1929, a downtown Riverside venue.
“I am here to announce our campaign for governor of California,” Bianco said to loud cheers and applause. “I’m running for governor of our beautiful state, which I absolutely love (because it’s) heading down the wrong track and has been for years.”
Bianco took aim at what he called the Sacramento Democratic “echo chamber” that has tried “the same failed ideas and the same failed policies” for decades.
“It is only our Democrat-elected officials who are responsible for the decline of California,” Bianco said. “Rampant crime, higher taxes, the highest cost of living in our nation, tent encampments in every major city, more fentanyl deaths, catastrophic fires, a broken homeowners’ insurance market and people across our state are struggling to afford groceries and gas.”
Since moving to California in 1989, Bianco said he’s been able to able to “achieve and live” his California dream.
“Unfortunately for my kids, destructive policies, political agendas, government overreach and regulation, radical activism and special interests have turned the California dream into a nightmare for millions of Californians,” he said.
“Today, we fire up the machine that will restore the promise to all Californians that the dream is still alive.”
Bianco also took aim at the various Democrats running for governor, saying “all of them want to be the first of this, the first of that, highlighting the worst aspect of this woke culture.”
“It is no longer about character, ability, leadership or what’s worse, it’s not about Californians. It is about them,” the sheriff said. “I believe California is in desperate need of an honest, ethical, moral governor with integrity whose only interest is to serve all of California.”
Bianco also touted his role in advocating 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.
By passing Proposition 36, “California stood up and said ‘We have had enough,’” Bianco said.
“Californians want our streets cleaned up, tent encampments gone and public safety restored,” he said. “They want schools whose only mission is to educate our children. Leave the politics out of our schools and let parents raise their children.”
Elected officials sharing the stage with Bianco included Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona; Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin; Riverside County Supervisor Karen Spiegel; state Sen. Kelly Seyarto, R-Murrieta; and Assemblymembers Greg Wallis, R-Bermuda Dunes; Jeff Gonzalez, R-Coachella; Leticia Castillo, R-Riverside; and Bill Essayli, R-Corona.
“Common sense” and “competence” are needed in Sacramento, Calvert told supporters before Bianco spoke. “That’s what President (Donald) Trump has brought to Washington and it’s what Chad Bianco will bring to Sacramento.”
Speaking after Calvert, Hestrin, who said he’s known Bianco for 25 years, described the sheriff as “a man of faith, intelligence, integrity and grit. He won’t lie to us and deceive us … He won’t sell out or surrender when he believes he’s right.”
“We’re tired of being lied to,” the district attorney said. “We’re tired of the deception and the delusion coming out of Sacramento and the corruption … We need a revolution of competence in government.”
Prior to the event, 412 Church Temecula Valley Pastor Tim Thompson joined others in laying their hands on Bianco for a blessing.
Thompson’s Inland Empire Family Political Action Committee helped elect several people to Inland Southern California school boards. And Thompson’s church welcomed home a member who was released from prison after being pardoned by Trump for crimes stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot.
Bianco’s announcement drew hundreds of supporters to downtown Riverside. They held red, white and blue “Bianco for Governor” signs as those who couldn’t fit inside the venue watched the sheriff’s speech on an outdoor screen.
Inside, a packed room gathered in front of a podium under a blue “Bianco Governor” banner.
“Let’s Go Bianco!” and “We want Bianco! We want Bianco!” chants started shortly before the sheriff took the podium about 11:15 a.m. Supporters carried Bianco-for-governor signs with slogans reading “California is Home. You Don’t Have to Move” and “Only the Sheriff Can Save Us Now.”
Holly Johnson drove from Cherry Valley for Monday’s announcement.
“We need change in obviously the highest office in the state,” she said. “My son and daughter-in-law left (California). They wanted a better life in another state and it made me sad they had to move to do that.”
She added: “My daughter’s now home-schooling because she wants to make sure the parents are the ones educating and the morals and everything that we believe in” are passed along to her children.
Outside the venue, a handful of protesters held signs, including “CA need a fair governor for all people, not Chad Bianco” and “Chad is Bad for CA.”
Some of Bianco’s supporters yelled at or cussed at protesters as they stood alongside Mission Inn Avenue.
Pat Eickman of Indivisible Riverside had a sign reading: “We are all immigrants.”
“Chad Bianco has not shown that he respects all citizens equally,” Eickman said.
Noting media coverage of Riverside County jail inmate deaths, she added: “He cannot keep the jails safe. He certainly can’t protect California. He’s just incompetent.”
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.”
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, a married father and grandfather who lives in the unincorporated community of Woodcrest just outside Riverside, 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.