Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco enters the 2026 California governor’s race

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco on Monday launched his campaign for California governor, painting himself as a law-and-order conservative who can right a state in decline after decades of mismanagement by Democratic leadership.

Before hundreds of supporters gathered in Riverside, Bianco, 58, said the California dream had “turned into a nightmare” for people struggling with rising prices for food, groceries, electricity and housing.

“What is it that they have given us?” Bianco said of Democrats. “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. ... Californians deserve better.”

As some of his supporters waved signs that read, “California is home. You don’t have to move,” Bianco said he was “tired of my friends leaving the state. I’m tired of watching my friends’ kids leave this state.”

Bianco is the highest profile Republican to enter the 2026 race to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom, joining a crowded field of Democrats. Newsom is serving his second term and cannot run again.

Bianco was elected Riverside County sheriff in 2018 and reelected in 2022. He has built a statewide profile as a vocal critic of Newsom and the state Legislature’s Democratic supermajority.

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco takes a selfie with supporters after announcing his campaign to run for governor Monday.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

He’s drawn headlines for his refusal to enforce potential vaccine mandates for Sheriff’s Department employees during the COVID-19 pandemic; a civil rights investigation into his department by state prosecutors, which Bianco has said is politically motivated; and his support for Proposition 36, the ballot measure voters approved last fall to stiffen criminal penalties for theft and fentanyl dealing.

“We won that fight, and we won it big,” Bianco said of Proposition 36. The California electorate’s two-thirds support for the measure, he said, was a repudiation of Democratic leaders who “tried their best to keep it off our ballot, to prevent all of you from forcing them to do what was right.”

The last Republican to be elected governor in California was Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006. About one in four voters in California is a registered Republican, compared with almost 46% who are Democrats and 22% who have no party preference.

Bianco told the crowd that his campaign will not be about party politics, but “about the common goal we all have for a better California.” He later told reporters: “I have to be a Republican, because they make us register as something.”

Pam Nusser of Riverside said Bianco won her support during the pandemic, when he refused to enforce health department orders to close businesses, including her barbecue restaurant.

“I love him,” Nusser said. “He can’t be intimidated and he can’t be bought.”

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco speaks with the media after announcing his bid for governor Monday.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

Bianco last year joined a coalition of sheriffs from across the U.S. who endorsed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ tough stance on immigration, which included transporting immigrants to so-called sanctuary cities across the country.

This month, he swatted aside rumors that Riverside County sheriff’s deputies were assisting with immigration raids at schools and churches, saying his deputies would not assist with “any type of immigration enforcement.”

He said he would “do everything I can within the confines of the sanctuary state laws of California” to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to “remove criminals from our jails.”

Bianco also faced scrutiny after a data leak revealed that in 2014 he had been a member of the Oath Keepers, a far-right group whose members participated in the pro-Trump insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Bianco later said he didn’t renew his membership because the organization “did not offer me anything.”

Nearly a year and a half before the primary election in June of 2026, the race for governor is still wide open.

The biggest question mark is whether former Vice President Kamala Harris, a Bay Area native who lives in Los Angeles, will jump into the fray. Bianco said he hoped so.

“To run against her and her history in California, I’d welcome that,” Bianco said.

Harris’ entry could spell bad news for the current field of Democrats, including Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, state schools chief Tony Thurmond, former state Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and businessman and philanthropist Stephen Cloobeck.

Other well-known Democrats said 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.

Other potential Republican candidates include conservative commentator Steve Hilton and former state Sen. Brian Dahle, who ran against Newsom in 2022.