Pro-trump Sheriff To Run For Governor In Deep Blue California

SACRAMENTO, California — Southern California Sheriff Chad Bianco, a Republican supporter of Donald Trump and fierce critic of Gavin Newsom, will run for California governor in 2026, two people familiar with his plans tell POLITICO.

Bianco, who has built a firebrand profile on issues of crime and punishment, faces strong headwinds in a blue state that hasn’t bucked the majority party in nearly two decades. But he’s looking to build off momentum from a fall statewide ballot measure he helped champion — Proposition 36 — that increased penalties for certain drug and theft crimes.

Bianco has been eyeing higher office since at least last spring. POLITICO reported in April that activists were talking him up as a future Sacramento aspirant when Newsom completes his final term. At the time, an adviser said California has a lot of problems, and its citizens are looking “outside the Sacramento political class to bring the state back.”

Speculation around Bianco has mounted in recent days after an online post teased a “major announcement” from next week. The elected sheriff, whose vast territory stretches from the Orange County line to the Colorado River and the Arizona border, is set to announce his run alongside scores of supporters at a Monday event in Riverside.

Bianco has accused Democratic leaders of coddling criminals and making it harder to arrest and imprison them. He did not comment, but one of the people familiar with his plans, granted anonymity to share them, said he would organize his campaign around one overarching theme: “Public safety. Public safety. Public safety,” the person said.

“Prop 36 put a hole in the Democratic coalition and we have every intention of driving a train through it,” they added.

Bianco, a fixture on Fox News, has touted improved morale in the sheriff’s department since he took office in 2019, which at more than 4,000 personnel is among the state’s largest. He will seek to capitalize on support from conservatives and law enforcement in what is shaping up to be a battle on the right. Another Republican, Steve Hilton, is considering a gubernatorial run in California, where the top-two primary candidates regardless of party advance to a head-to-head matchup in November 2026.

Hilton, the former Fox News host and policy adviser to ex-British Prime Minister David Cameron, has asked former state Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero, a Democrat-turned-Republican, to run alongside him for lieutenant governor. The pair has been active since Trump’s election, skewering Newsom and other state and city leaders over myriad policies — from response to the Los Angeles wildfires to water deliveries to the Southland.

The Democratic field has been frozen since former Vice President Kamala Harris instructed her advisers to keep her options open — for a possible campaign for governor in 2026 or another run for president in 2028. Harris, during a recent tour of fire damage in Los Angeles, brushed aside repeated questions from the news media about her future.

Among the Democrats already in the crowded contest: Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, former state Senate leader Toni Atkins, former state Controller Betty Yee and state schools Superintendent Tony Thurmond. But the field could shift in an instant if Harris, former Rep. Katie Porter or former HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, who previously served as California attorney general — enter the race.

While Democrats maintain a clear advantage, Bianco (or Hilton) could still spoil the contest for a second Democrat by consolidating the right in the primary. In addition to his TV appearances, Bianco has climbed the ranks of the statewide sheriff’s association, gaining attention for speaking out about California’s strict Covid restrictions. He has acknowledged briefly belonging to the Oath Keepers in 2014, but contended that the group — whose leaders had been sentenced to decades in prison for orchestrating the plot that culminated with the Jan. 6, 2021, attacks on the Capitol — was not the organization he paid to sign onto.

Bianco, though, can be a gunslinger. Last fall, he stood by his remarks that deputies in his department may have foiled another assassination attempt on Trump, a point refuted by federal law enforcement. When Bianco endorsed Trump last June, he cut a tongue-in-cheek video in which he argued that while he’s been critical of Democrats for going easy on criminals, “I think it's time we put a felon in the White House. Trump 2024, baby,” he concluded. “Let's save this country and make America great again.”

In California, he’s also been an outspoken critic of illegal immigration and the Biden administration's early failures to crack down on the southern border. Though he previously joined with other Republicans to denounce the flow of migrants into the U.S., Bianco recently took to social media to announce that his deputies will not perform “any type of immigration enforcement,” pushing back on claims that his personnel were actively involved in such operations in violation of state law.

“There has been an alarming increase in the concern over law enforcement and immigration,” Bianco said in his Instagram post. “Most of this is being caused by misinformation and fear mongering from dishonest politicians, social media, immigration activists and even disingenuous headlines from the media.”

“Let me make this perfectly clear. The Riverside County Sheriff's Office and your deputies have not, are not and will not engage in any type of immigration enforcement,” Bianco added. “That is the sole responsibility of the federal government.”

The comments came amid another potential clash with the state.

California’s SB 54 prohibits state and local law enforcement from using resources to assist in federal immigration enforcement. But Trump’s border czar Tom Homan has warned that local law enforcement officials who don’t cooperate with ICE agents on deportations will be federally prosecuted.

Bianco said he would do everything he could — within the confines of the so-called “sanctuary state” laws of California — to cooperate with ICE to deport people in jails.