PRIMARY ‘26: Riverside County Sheriff Bianco attracts conservative voters with tough-on-crime platform (with videos)
Fourth in a series of introductions of candidates for California governor running in the 2026 primary. The top two vote-getters in the primary election – regardless of party preference – move on to the general election in November, according to the California Secretary of State.
Originally from Utah, Sheriff of Riverside County Chad Bianco is one of the two Republican candidates running for California governor.
“I’m running this election for Californians,” Bianco said in an NBC Los Angeles interview. “This isn’t for the Democrat Party. It’s certainly not for (the) Republican Party or Independent Party. This is for Californians, and that includes all of us.”
Bianco graduated from the San Bernardino Sheriff Academy in 1993 and was elected as sheriff in 2018, having already worked in the sheriff’s department for 25 years.
Bianco was elected again in 2022 and will continue in this position until 2028.
As sheriff, Bianco oversees five jail facilities, 12 patrol stations, 4,200 employees and an operating budget of over $1 billion, according to the Riverside County Sheriff website.
“As sheriff, Chad Bianco confronted the realities of California’s struggling public safety system,” Bianco’s website stated. “He inherited a department facing a budget crisis, dwindling morale and fractured relationships with local law enforcement.
“He tackled these challenges head-on, stabilizing finances on strict budgets, rebuilding partnerships and collaboration and ensuring our deputies had the support they needed.”
While Bianco dealt with the department’s budget issues, Riverside County faced the worst rate of crimes solved by an arrest in California for Part I offenses, at an average of 9.2% between the years of 2019 and 2024, according to a report by the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice.
According to a 2024 study, an average of 19 lives per year were lost in Riverside County custody from the year 2012 to 2024, with the number of deaths in later years increasing significantly from 2012.
This, as well as allegations of misconduct, caused a civil rights investigation to be launched into the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office.
In February 2026, Bianco seized over 650,000 ballots from the November 2025 California special election on redistricting.
According to the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to upholding American democracy, Bianco’s seizure of the ballots was unlawful, bypassing California’s civil process regarding concerns about election procedures, and was based on the analysis of incomplete data.
Now Bianco joined the heavily debated race for the 2026 primary election, one person within a wide range of many candidates to choose from for California governor.
In April, City Times published the 2026 edition of the San Diego City College Community Agenda, a survey that identified issues that students, faculty, staff and community members cared about most.
City Times Media is using the results to focus its election reporting, breaking down gubernatorial candidates’ statements shared through official sources and made during debates and forums.
Early survey results identified eight issues shared below that matter most to the City College community, the results of which are shared below as of April 29.
CTM has examined the following issues that have been addressed by Chad Bianco and compiled the following results.
Bianco’s campaign website lays out a plan for California’s economy, claiming “decades of failed policies, over taxation and regulations” have caused many Californians to leave for other states.”
The plan is to cut taxes on families and businesses, stop certain regulations of California’s economy and utilize California’s energy resources.
To unleash energy resources in California, Bianco wants to embrace energy solutions such as hydro, geothermal and nuclear, to lift restrictions on drilling within the Central Valley and across California, and to modernize the grid.
Bianco does not mention exactly which restrictions and prohibitions he aims to lift, but an agreement between California and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management addresses the restrictions Bianco talked about.
The agreement halted the leasing for oil and gas on many acres of public land, especially within Central California.
Bianco also aims to support California’s technology sector “to create good-paying jobs and open avenues to ensure California (is) the innovation capital of the country,” his campaign website stated.
Bianco exhibited a lot of hesitancy regarding certain healthcare areas in the podcasts he has been featured in, such as “The Lila Rose Show”, where he regurgitated common right-wing talking points about topics like vaccines and abortions.
“There’s just as many doctors and scientists that are saying that we are being harmed and killed by medical intervention, by vaccines, by treatments, by whatever the case as doctors and scientists on the other side that are saying how necessary it is,” Bianco claimed on “The Lila Rose Show.”
In a study from Global Biodefense, of the physicians surveyed in May 2021 by Matt Motta and Timothy Callaghan, both of whom are researchers studying vaccine hesitancy, they found that partisanship plays a large role in vaccine hesitancy, yet 88% of physicians agreed that vaccines in general are safe, 90% agreed that vaccines are effective and 89% agreed that vaccines are important.
Bianco aims to remove vaccine mandates for public schools, one of which is the Hepatitis B vaccine requirement, as mentioned on Lila Rose’s podcast.
Hepatitis B is a liver infection caused by the Hepatitis B Virus, which can cause liver failure, liver disease, liver cancer and death, according to the World Hepatitis Alliance.
Vaccines have significantly reduced rates of disease, disability and death, and the only human disease ever eradicated, smallpox, was achieved through the use of a vaccine, according to an article published in the National Library of Medicine.
Bianco mentioned other areas of healthcare, such as abortions, on the same podcast.
“I do not believe that an abortion is healthcare,” Bianco said.As governor, Bianco would not fund Planned Parenthood, despite knowing of the other services that the organization provides.
Planned Parenthood provides a multitude of services from birth control and emergency contraceptives to HIV tests and vaccinations to prenatal and postpartum services, all at an affordable cost and some even at no cost.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, conservative-led policy changes and funding restrictions have consistently attacked contraceptive access and bodily autonomy, including attempts to defund Planned Parenthood.
“Name one other elective surgery, elective medical procedure that taxpayers pay for,” Bianco said on the podcast about abortion. “There’s nothing. If you want a facelift, go get a facelift. But you’re paying for it. Your insurance isn’t going to pay for it. My taxpayer dollars are not going to pay for it.”
Bianco suggested abstinence as a way to ensure not having an unplanned pregnancy to avoid the need for an abortion.
Bianco goes on to discourage sex education for children.
“We have (teachers) in school teaching third graders about sex,” Bianco said.
Multiple studies, including one done by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, found that comprehensive sex education reduced teen births through reduced initiation, decreased frequency, fewer sexual partners and increased use of contraceptives.
States with abstinence-only education for children have a higher incidence of adolescent pregnancies and births, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
The candidate’s website speaks of wanting to use multiple maneuvers to lower the costs of housing.
Those maneuvers include expediting housing projects, eliminating the California Environmental Quality Act, ending the “over-regulation” of the construction industry and protecting Proposition 13.
CEQA helps to protect California’s environmental and public health, according to the Sierra Club, a grassroots environmental organization.
The communities affected most by environmental hazards and issues are Latino, Black, Asian, Native American and other communities of color, according to a study published in the National Library of Medicine.
It is unclear which regulations Bianco aims to target, as he has not specified any.
On Bianco’s website, he aims to prevent toll increases and to suspend the California Gas Tax, the highest in the nation at 70.9 cents, according to the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan tax policy nonprofit.
Other goals include expanding HOV lanes, cancelling the high-speed rail project and investing in “infrastructure projects that Californians actually need – like highway expansions.”
Bianco’s priorities reveal who he truly considers a Californian and who he includes as a part of his priorities.
Framing protests as “riots” restricts Americans’ right to engage in peaceful protest, as protected by the First Amendment, by switching the narrative from one of public demonstration of disapproval to one of people acting violently to cause terror.
Eliminating protections for transgender individuals, especially children, would cause more mental health issues and death within the queer community, although Bianco claims to want to fix the mental health crisis.
The transgender population faces higher rates of mental distress, according to the Centre for Suicide Prevention.
This is not because of their gender identity or any possible confusion regarding it, but because of the internalized, familial and public stigma that prevents them from expressing themselves and their gender identity to their fullest extent.
Transgender children receiving support from their schools, families and governments reduces their risk of suicide.
Regulations against businesses, oil and gas companies were written in blood, and removing them would only spill more.
Fifty-one workers were killed in the 1978 Willow Island Disaster after multiple safety protocols were bypassed and overlooked.
Cutting corners caused the Deepwater Horizon oil spill that killed 11 workers from the originating blast and ruined many people’s livelihoods from the resulting contamination.
As of April 17, there have been 500 reported contaminant spills in California, according to the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.
Despite being a family man, Bianco’s plan to remove vaccine mandates for grades K-12 would cause child deaths from disease outbreaks.
A study shows that limiting access to abortions causes higher maternal and infant mortality rates, as pregnant individuals search for unsafe methods of removing their unwanted pregnancy.
Bianco’s stance on sanctuary policies would cause immigrants to lose their ability to feel safe in their own communities.
As violent immigration enforcement continues, jurisdictions with sanctuary policies keep their communities safer and engaged, seeing many benefits such as a higher median income, less poverty and higher employment rates, according to a study done by University of California, San Diego professor of political science Tom K. Wong.
Bianco states that he prioritizes all Californians, but his stances on these issues and the policies that he promotes paint a different picture, one that favors the most privileged Americans.
Whether Bianco is unaware of, complacent with or ignoring the effects of his policies, many communities, such as lower-income communities, immigrant communities and queer communities, will be harmed should Bianco achieve what he says he will achieve as governor.
Bianco does have a substantial chance at moving on to the general election, and as of May 12, Bianco is polling around 13.1%, falling in popularity since March 1.
Voters should receive their mail ballot between 29 to 7 days before Election Day, according to the San Diego Registrar of Voters.
For more coverage of the 2026 elections, visit sdcitytimes.com.
This story was edited by Angela Galan Martinez and David J. Bohnet.
Your donation will support the student journalists of San Diego City College. Your contribution will allow us to purchase equipment, cover the cost of training and travel to conferences, and fund student scholarships. Credit card donations are not tax deductible. Instead, those donations must be made by check. Please contact adviser Nicole Vargas for more information at [email protected].
