Chad Bianco

Snapshot

Chad Bianco is the two-term Riverside County sheriff running as the hardline, law-enforcement Republican in the 2026 governor’s race, positioning himself to Steve Hilton’s right on crime and immigration. A career deputy who rose through the Riverside ranks over three decades before winning the sheriff’s office in 2018, he built a national conservative profile during the pandemic by refusing to enforce Gavin Newsom’s mask and vaccine mandates, and by endorsing Donald Trump in 2024. His campaign runs on a “Safer California” message: tougher policing, full Prop 36 implementation, reopening prisons Newsom closed, and dismantling the SB 54 sanctuary law.

He is the favorite of California’s sheriffs — roughly two-thirds of the state’s 58 county sheriffs back him — and he edged Hilton in the CA GOP convention straw vote (49%–44%, with neither reaching the 60% threshold). But he trails Hilton in public polling (generally 10–16%), lacks Hilton’s Trump endorsement and money, and carries heavy baggage for a statewide Republican: a self-described “proud” past Oath Keepers membership, a contested 650,000-ballot seizure from the 2025 election, and a record of jail deaths and a pending Department of Justice investigation.

Background

Chad Bianco was born October 9, 1967, at Hill Air Force Base near Ogden, Utah, the eldest of three boys, and grew up in a small Utah mining town. He attended the College of Eastern Utah and the University of Utah, later earning a bachelor of science from Columbia Southern University. He moved to California in 1989, attended the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Academy in 1993 — reportedly graduating at the top of his class — and joined the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department shortly afterward, spending his entire law-enforcement career there.

Bianco first ran for Riverside County sheriff unsuccessfully in 2014, then won the office in 2018, taking over as the county’s 14th Sheriff-Coroner on January 7, 2019. He was re-elected in 2022 with roughly 60% of the vote; because state law synchronizes sheriff elections with presidential cycles, his current term runs to 2028, letting him run for governor without resigning. He lives in Woodcrest, an unincorporated Riverside County community, with his wife Denise; the couple have four adult children.

Record

Because Bianco is an elected administrator rather than a legislator, his record consists of executive choices as sheriff and public political positions rather than a roster of signed bills. As sheriff he runs one of California’s largest departments — more than 3,600 employees, patrol for unincorporated Riverside County and contract cities, the county jail system, and coroner functions.

His most consequential actions: declining to enforce California’s COVID-19 mask and stay-at-home orders in 2020–2021 and rejecting a vaccine mandate for his own department, the stance that gave him a national conservative profile; an active supporting role for Proposition 36, the 2024 measure increasing some theft and drug penalties; and his 2024 endorsement of Trump. In June 2020 he knelt with Black Lives Matter protesters during the George Floyd demonstrations, a moment he later recast, by 2023 describing such protests as “destructive riots.” His jail-management record includes a spike to 18 in-custody deaths in 2022 — the highest in 15 years — and a 2023 California DOJ investigation into alleged unconstitutional policing and jail conditions.

Coalition & base

Bianco’s base is the Inland Empire and exurban conservative coalition — Riverside and San Bernardino counties where he is a known local figure, plus rural and agricultural-county Republicans statewide. His most distinctive asset is institutional law-enforcement support: the California State Sheriffs’ Association and roughly 38 county sheriffs (including San Francisco’s Democratic sheriff, Paul Miyamoto), giving him an organizational network on his signature issue that no rival can match. Demographically he leans on white, older, rural-and-exurban GOP voters plus a slice of working-class and Latino conservatives drawn to his law-and-order and immigration messaging; his endorsements include the Republican National Hispanic Assembly. Ideologically he occupies the populist, pro-Trump lane — but without Trump’s own endorsement, which went to Hilton, the structural constraint on his candidacy.

Controversies & scrutiny

• Oath Keepers membership. A 2021 hack of the Oath Keepers’ database revealed Bianco had been a dues-paying member. He acknowledged a one-year, $40 membership in 2014 he did not renew, said he “didn’t even remember joining,” and defended the group as standing for “protecting the Constitution.” The Oath Keepers is an anti-government group whose members were among those convicted (including for seditious conspiracy) over the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack. In a May 2026 CNN debate he said “I’m very proud of it” when challenged by Villaraigosa; Becerra called the response “chilling,” and Villaraigosa said he did not believe “an Oath Keeper is qualified to be governor.”
• 2025 ballot seizure. As sheriff, Bianco seized roughly 650,000 ballots from Riverside County’s November 2025 special election under warrants signed by a judge he had endorsed. After news outlets won the unsealing of the affidavits, the records showed investigators “had no insider tipsters, no witnesses and no independent analyses from forensic experts,” relying on a citizens’ group an elections expert likened to “flat earthers.” Attorney General Rob Bonta argued there was no probable cause and called it an attempt to undermine confidence in elections; a court declined the state’s bid to halt the recount.
• Jail deaths and DOJ investigation. Riverside County jails recorded 18 in-custody deaths in 2022, prompting civil lawsuits; Bianco said each death “was out of anyone’s control.” In 2023 the California DOJ opened an investigation into an alleged “pattern or practice of unconstitutional policing” and jail conditions.
• Immigration record vs. messaging. His department’s official line is that Riverside deputies “have not, are not and will not engage in any type of immigration enforcement,” a legal reality under SB 54. As a candidate he has vowed to dismantle SB 54 and said he would work “around SB 54 with ICE” to deport people who victimize residents — a tension critics flag as contradiction or strategic ambiguity.
• COVID statements. LAist and health experts characterized some of Bianco’s pandemic statements as false or misleading, particularly claims minimizing vaccination for the previously infected.

Campaign & messaging

Bianco runs a blunt, combative, identity-forward campaign built on the sheriff’s-badge brand — “From sheriff to governor,” “A Safer California.” His core contrast line is sharp: “One candidate has done the work. The rest have built the system that broke California.” A frequent Fox News guest, he leans into anti-establishment framing. His communications strength is authenticity and a clear single-issue identity — the lawman who will restore order. His constraint is that the same instinct not to back down (the “very proud” Oath Keepers moment, the ballot seizure) repeatedly hands opponents and the press damaging material that limits his ceiling beyond the GOP base.

How they differ

Bianco’s lane is tough-on-crime law enforcement, positioned to Hilton’s right. Against Hilton — the media-and-policy Republican carrying Trump’s endorsement and a “Califordable” affordability frame — Bianco offers a literal badge, sheriffs’ endorsements, and harder-edged immigration and crime rhetoric, distinguishing himself on authenticity of experience (“done the work”) rather than profile or endorsements. Against the Democratic field he is the maximal contrast, leaning into it rather than softening. His attack target is less any single rival than the entire “system” — Newsom Democrats and, implicitly, the establishment Hilton represents to convention activists. Under California’s top-two primary, all candidates regardless of party compete for the two spots that advance to November; Bianco and Hilton draw from the same Republican pool, so whether that vote splits or consolidates shapes how each fares.