Sheriff Chad Bianco Faces 1st GOP Challenger In Race For CA Governor

CALIFORNIA — Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco will face a GOP challenger in the California governor's race.

Republican podcaster and former Fox News host Steve Hilton is scheduled to enter the contest, with a formal announcement planned Tuesday in Huntington Beach.

According to his campaign, Hilton will run for governor with a theme of "Golden Again: Great Jobs, Great Homes, Great Kids."

"I just want to ask people to imagine what California would be like after another 15 years of one-party rule by the Democrats, yet more stagnation and decline," Hilton told the Southern California News Group. "If you look at the state of California today, it is just a disaster on every front."

Hilton also posted a video online discussing his gubernatorial aspirations, saying in part that it's "time for a new future" in California.

Hilton, 55, was born in the United Kingdom and was an adviser to Prime Minister David Cameron before moving to California's Silicon Valley in 2012, becoming a U.S. citizen and teaching at Stanford University. He hosted "The Next Revolution" on Fox News and also hosted several politically focused podcasts.

He is also the founder of Golden Together, a policy organization that claims it's seeking solutions for homelessness and other issues.

Sheriff Bianco announced his bid for the governor's office earlier this year. In announcing his candidacy, the 57-year-old lawman pledged to reform California laws and has consistently criticized the Golden State's current era.

On Monday, the pro-Trump sheriff proclaimed on social media that, if elected governor, he would sweep up the homeless by mobilizing law enforcement "to force these people" into treatment and off the streets.

Last month, Bianco teased that he would seek to abolish the state income tax if elected governor. Patch reached out to his campaign for comment about the rhetoric but did not hear back.

On his campaign website, Bianco appears to have backed away from nixing the state income tax altogether and now promises to "cut taxes on working families and businesses."

Bianco espouses tough-on-crime mandates. He was a leading champion of Proposition 36, a successful 2024 ballot measure that tightened punishments for certain drug and theft offenses. Conservative supporters hailed the passage, which received bipartisan support, as a rebuke of progressive criminal justice reform.

In January 2023, Bianco was sworn into a second term in office. That four-year term was extended to 2028 thanks to Newsom, who signed off on Assembly Bill 759. The law mandates that elections for California's sheriffs and district attorneys be held in the same years as U.S. presidential contests.

The same year that Bianco began his second term, California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced his office had opened a civil rights investigation into the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department. The investigation seeks to determine whether the law enforcement agency engaged in a pattern or practice of unconstitutional policing "amid deeply concerning allegations relating to conditions of confinement in its jail facilities, excessive force, and other misconduct," according to Bonta's office.

The sheriff has defended his leadership and has criticized Bonta's investigation, calling it a "political stunt." Bianco also claimed the state probe was fueled by favored "activists."

The ongoing investigation was preceded by outcry from the American Civil Liberties Union. The non-profit civil rights organization was calling on Bonta to investigate the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department "for its racist policing practices, rampant patrol and jail deaths, and its refusal to comply with ... court orders."

Bianco has largely appealed to Donald Trump supporters. The sheriff first became a national GOP darling when he refused to enforce COVID restrictions, and he has continued to garner favor with his hard-right brand of political messaging.

Amid the pandemic, however, Bianco gained support from all sides during the nationwide 2020 demonstrations sparked by the in-custody death of George Floyd in Minnesota.

Bianco was supportive of the many peaceful demonstrations in the county, and said he was "appalled" by footage showing Floyd's death. He told local protesters, "We are on your side."

While some local arrests were made during the protests, Riverside County did not see widespread violence or vandalism. The peacefulness was largely attributed to efforts by Riverside County deputies and the sheriff.

However, Bianco has had to fend off revelations that, in 2014, he belonged to the extremist Oath Keepers militia. In a 2021 interview with NPR, Bianco sought to downplay his affiliation with the organization while also insisting that the Oath Keepers have been misunderstood.

Also, Bianco is currently the defendant in a defamation lawsuit brought about by comments the lawman made last year amid a Coachella Valley rally for then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. In the complaint filed in March, it's alleged that the sheriff deliberately made false public statements, calling a Nevada man a would-be Trump assassin.

Bianco and Hilton face a tough task ahead. The GOP has lost the last three California gubernatorial elections by nearly 20 percentage points or more and has not won a statewide office since 2006.

A host of Democrats have joined the California governor's race — former congressman and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, former Orange County Rep. Katie Porter, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, state schools chief Tony Thurmond, former Controller Betty Yee, former state Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins and entrepreneur Stephen Cloobeck.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris is reportedly considering a run for the Sacramento job, but she has not yet announced her decision.

Newsom, who has served as California's governor since January 2019, will term out at the end of this year.