The Sheriff of the County of Riverside Bianco enters the race of the Governor of California

The sheriff of the County of Riverside, Chad Bianco, launched his campaign for the governor of California on Monday, struggling as a curator of the law and the order who can put a state in decline after decades of mismanagement of the Democratic direction.

Before hundreds of supporters come together in Riverside, Bianco, 58, said that California’s dream “became a nightmare” for people struggling with the price of food, grocery store, of electricity and housing.

“What did they give us?” Bianco said Democrats. “Crime crawling, higher taxes, the highest cost of life in our country, tent camps in each big city, more fentanyl deaths, catastrophic fires, a broken home insurance market. … the Californians deserve better.

While some of his supporters have praised panels that are read, “California is at home. You don’t have to move, “said Bianco that he was” tired that my friends leave the state. I am tired of seeing the children of my friends leave this state. “”

Bianco is the deepest republican to participate in the race in 2026 to replace Governor Gavin Newsom, joining a crowded field of democrats. Newsom is serving his second term and can no longer run.

Bianco was elected Sheriff of the County of Riverside in 2018 and re -elected in 2022. He built a profile on the scale of the State as a vocal critic of Newsom and the democratic supermajority of the Legislative Assembly of the State.

He pulled the headlines for his Refusal to enforce potential vaccine mandates for employees of the Sheriff department during the COVVI-19 pandemic; A survey on civil rights in his department by state prosecutors, who, according to Bianco, was politically motivated; And its support for proposal 36, the voter ballot approved last fall to stiffen criminal sanctions for flight and fentanyl.

“We won this fight, and we won it great,” said Bianco about proposal 36., To prevent you from forcing them to do what was good. »»

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

Bianco told the crowd that his campaign would not concern parties’ policy, but “on the common goal we all have for better California”. He later told journalists: “I must be republican because they make us register as something.”

Pam nusser de Riverside said that Bianco had won his support during the pandemic, when he refused to enforce orders from the health service to close companies, including his barbecue restaurant.

“I love him,” said Nusser. “It cannot be intimidated and it cannot be purchased.”

Bianco last year joined a coalition of sheriffs from all over the United States which approved the difficult position of the Governor of Florida Ron Desantis, which included the transport of immigrants in so-called sanctuary cities across the country.

This month, he dismissed rumors apart from the rumors that the deputies of the Sheriff of the county of Riverside helped immigration raids in schools and churches, affirming that his deputies would not help “any type of ‘Application of immigration ”.

He said he “would do everything I can within the laws of California in the state of the sanctuary” to cooperate with immigration and customs application to “withdraw criminals from our prisons”.

Bianco was also examined after a data leak revealed that in 2014, he was a member of the oath, an extreme right group whose members participated in the pro-Trump insurrection at the American Capitol on January 6 2021. Bianco said later he did not renew his members because the organization “did not give me anything.

Almost a year and a half before the primary elections in June 2026, the race for the governor is still wide open.

The biggest question mark is whether the former vice-president Kamala Harris, from Bay Area who lives in Los Angeles, will jump into the melee. Bianco said he hoped for it.

“To run against her and her story in California, I would be welcome,” said Bianco.

The entry of Harris could spell bad news for the current field of Democrats, notably Lieutenant-Governor Eleni Kounalakis, the head of public schools Tony Thurmond, the former president of the State Senate, Pro Toni Atkins, L ‘Former mayor of Los Angeles Antonio Villaraigosa and the businessman and philanthrope Stephen Cloobeck.

The other well -known Democrats who envisage a race for the governor include the former American representative Katie Porter d’Irvine and the former secretary of health and social services Xavier Becerra.

The other potential republican candidates are the conservative commentator Steve Hilton and former state senator Brian Dahle, who appeared against Newsom in 2022.