Southern California Sheriff Chad Bianco, an unsparing critic of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and a conservative fixture on Fox News, is considering a run for California governor in 2026, POLITICO has learned.
Republican activists across the region have been talking up Bianco, the elected sheriff of Riverside County, as a future Sacramento aspirant as he bolsters his firebrand profile on issues of crime and punishment.
Bianco has come out hard for a proposed ballot measure to overhaul Proposition 47, the politically volatile ballot initiative that downgraded penalties for some drug and property crimes.
A political adviser for Bianco told POLITICO the sheriff has been approached in recent months by a number of elected officials and leaders about joining the crowded race for governor. Republicans are a longshot to win, but Bianco could spoil the contest for a second Democrat by consolidating the right in the primary.
“California has a lot of problems and they’re looking outside the Sacramento political class to bring the state back,” said his adviser, Nick Mirman.
“No decision has been made and he’s continuing to have conversations,” Mirman added.
Bianco is rising up the ranks of the statewide sheriff’s association, speaking out about California’s Covid restrictions and confronting controversies along the way.
In a 2021 interview with National Public Radio member station KPCC in Los Angeles, Bianco acknowledged he briefly belonged to the extremist Oath Keepers group in 2014 after internal emails revealing its members were leaked.
Bianco contended that the group — part of the far-right patriot militia movement whose leaders were 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.
“They certainly don’t promote violence and government overthrow. They stand for protecting the Constitution,” Bianco said in the interview.
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