Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, an avid supporter of President Trump and fierce critic of Gov. Gavin Newsom, will run for governor in 2026.
Bianco, a law-and-order conservative, becomes the highest profile Republican to join a race already crowded with Democrats. All hope to succeed Newsom, who is serving his second term and is barred from running again.
The race remains wide open, and speculation continues to swirl over whether former Vice President Kamala Harris will jump into the contest. Harris, who lost to Trump in the November presidential election, lives in Brentwood and has had a successful career in California politics, serving as San Francisco district attorney, California attorney general and representing the state in the U.S. Senate.
Bianco plans to announce his official candidacy on Monday, President’s Day, in Riverside. His decision to jump into the race was first reported by Politico and confirmed by The Times.
Bianco was elected sheriff in 2018 after a long career at the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office and reelected in 2022. He has been considering a run for governor since June.
As sheriff, Bianco has been a harsh critic of statewide public safety policies. During the 2024 election, Bianco supported Proposition 36, the ballot measure approved by voters to reverse course on progressive criminal justice reform, cracking down on theft crimes and the use of the deadly drug fentanyl.
In 2021, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bianco created a political stir when he vowed not to enforce any potential vaccine mandates for Sheriff’s Office employees, saying he believed vaccination was a personal choice.
Bianco also faced scrutiny after a data leak revealed that in 2014 he was a member of the Oath Keepers, a far-right, anti-government group whose members took part in the pro-Trump insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Bianco later said he had discontinued his membership because, like many other law enforcement officers, he felt the organization “did not offer me anything.”
UC Riverside political scientist Shaun Bowler expects any Republican running for California governor to face a difficult path. Arnold Schwarzenegger was the last Republican elected governor, and that was in 2006. However, he does believe it still may be possible for a moderate Republican to fare well — if the candidate can overcome opposition from the party’s right wing.
“Even big-money Republican candidates have struggled even in recent years,” Bowler said. “I think it’s going to be uphill for him.”
Riverside County also has not proved to be a major political springboard in California, at least compared with Los Angeles, Orange County or the Bay Area, so Bianco will have to overcome that disadvantage, Bowler said.
Since taking office, Trump’s controversial actions on border security and his push to deport immigrants residing in the country illegally will almost assuredly be a top issue in California’s 2026 race for governor, and the Riverside sheriff has not been shy about expressing his views.
Last year, Bianco joined a coalition of sheriffs across the country who endorsed the tough stance on border security taken by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, including transporting immigrants to “sanctuary” cities across the country.
Earlier this month, though, Bianco announced that Riverside County deputies will not perform “any type of immigration enforcement,” saying that fear among local immigrant communities has increased due to raids ordered by the Trump administration.
“There has been an alarming increase in the concern over law enforcement and immigration,” he said. “Most of this is being caused by misinformation and fearmongering from dishonest politicians, social media, immigration activists and even disingenuous headlines from the media.”
In January, the Trump administration vowed to investigate and prosecute government officials who do not comply with restrictive orders on immigration. The move, outlined in an internal memo from acting U.S. Deputy Atty. Gen. Emil Bove, instructed state and local officials to comply with federal immigration directives.
An executive order Trump signed in January also required federal officials to take actions “to ensure that so-called ‘sanctuary’ jurisdictions, which seek to interfere with the lawful exercise of Federal law enforcement operations, do not receive access to Federal funds.”
While Riverside County is not a “sanctuary” jurisdiction, the Board of Supervisors recently approved a measure designating Riverside County as a “safe place for all residents, irrespective of immigration status.”
A UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll released in November found that, if Harris entered the governor’s race, nearly half of voters would likely support her.
Her entry would likely be bad news for the current field of Democrats in the race, which includes Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, state schools chief Tony Thurmond, former state Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and former State Controller Betty Yee.
Other well-known Democrats who appear to be considering a run for governor include former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter of Irvine and former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.
Times staff writers Hannah Fry and Laura J. Nelson contributed to this report.
