With regards to the Republican candidates for California governor in 2026, the 2 who recurrently ballot forward of the others — Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and former Fox Information host Steve Hilton — come from vastly totally different backgrounds.
Bianco, who is commonly seen sporting a cowboy hat, grew up in a small mining city in Utah, shifting to Southern California in 1989. 4 years later, he graduated from the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Academy at, in accordance with his marketing campaign bio, the highest of his class.
To many, the 57-year-old is the no-nonsense, law-and-order candidate who championed Proposition 36, the 2024 voter-approved poll measure that elevated penalties for sure drug and retail theft crimes, and has made public security a pillar of his marketing campaign.
Then there’s Hilton, a British-born international businessman who helped get David Cameron elected as the UK’s prime minister earlier than turning into a Fox Information host.
Hilton, 56, moved to the San Francisco Bay Space in 2012 and, in 2023, based Golden Collectively. In keeping with its web site, the group advocates on varied coverage points in California — starting from enterprise local weather and housing to power and water and wildfire administration — to be able to “get this state again on observe.”
“Sheriff Bianco, frankly, is true out of central casting for a conservative Republican. He’s a lawman from Inland California who wears cowboy boots daily,” stated Jon Fleischman, former govt director of the California Republican Social gathering.
“Hilton, then again, is extra of an mental. He needs to have extra sparring and debates on the concepts and the problems,” Fleischman continued.
Dan Schnur, who teaches political communications at USC and UC Berkeley, views Hilton as “rather more of a MAGA Republican,” a reference to President Donald Trump‘s supporters, and Bianco as “a extra conventional conservative.”
“They each signify essential parts of the get together base, and there’s appreciable overlap between the 2 of them,” Schnur stated. “However they each begin out with pure constituencies.”
“We are able to name it pro-Trump and pre-Trump Republicans.”
‘I worth my oath’
To be clear, Bianco has additionally aligned himself with the president. He endorsed Trump’s 2024 marketing campaign in an announcement throughout which he sarcastically stated “it’s time we put a felon within the White Home,” a reference to Trump’s conviction in a hush-money trial associated to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Requested if he thought of himself a “MAGA Republican” throughout an interview, Bianco responded by saying, “We must be doing the whole lot we will to make America nice once more.”
“In some way making America nice once more has was this violent, extremist factor that the Democrats need individuals to imagine,” he continued. “I would like America to be the best nation on this planet 10 occasions over. And I would like California to be the best state within the nation 10 occasions over.”
Bianco additionally addressed those that have criticized his affiliation with the Oath Keepers, a company with a fame as an anti-government extremist militia group. A few of its members took half within the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol, an occasion which Bianco condemned. The wrongful actions of some Oath Keepers, Bianco prompt, shouldn’t replicate on the group as an entire.
The Riverside County sheriff was a one-time dues-paying member of the Oath Keepers greater than a decade in the past. Though not a member, Bianco continued to defend Oath Keepers as misunderstood. In actuality, he stated, group members are merely individuals who served within the navy or regulation enforcement who swore an oath to guard the U.S. Structure.
“I’m extraordinarily proud that I worth my oath,” he stated. “Think about that: You have got a politician that truly values his oath. And folks need to make that out like (it’s) a nasty factor.”
‘Make California Golden Once more’
In the meantime, the opposite main GOP candidate within the governor’s race has been touring the state, spreading a message to “make California golden once more” — a slogan that reminds voters of Trump’s “Make America Nice Once more” rallying cry.
As a Fox Information host, Hilton has interviewed Trump. Final month, he instructed POLITICO his “good private relationships” with the Trump administration would make him “a very good champion for California with the present administration.”
Hilton additionally hasn’t shied from associating himself with Turning Level USA founder Charlie Kirk, the right-wing activist who was assassinated on Sept. 10. Inside days of the assassination, Hilton modified the bio on his X account to say “we’re going to win this for Charlie.”
Hilton is nicely conscious that many seen Kirk as divisive. However he noticed his not too long ago slain good friend as somebody who tried to interrupt down limitations between individuals with differing views and convey them collectively for civilized debates — objectives which Hilton can get behind.
“My marketing campaign is targeted on optimistic, sensible issues we will do to assist working individuals, small companies,” he stated. “It’s not ideological. It’s not targeted on issues that divide us.”
Republicans in a blue state
Although some see stark variations between Bianco and Hilton, the 2 have at the very least one factor in widespread: Each can count on their highway to the governor’s mansion to be something however a stroll within the park.
It’s been almost 20 years since Californians final elected a Republican governor. And the state stays solidly blue, with Democrats at present having fun with a 20 percentage-point voter registration benefit over Republicans (45% v. 25%).
Nonetheless, each GOP candidates swatted away ideas that the notion of one other Republican governing California is lifeless on arrival.
“Individuals ask, ‘How can a Republican win in California?’ … My query is, ‘How on earth can a Democrat win, given their report?’” requested Hilton, who rattled off a listing of points he stated Californians face.
That checklist included hovering housing prices, fuel costs and electrical energy payments; excessive unemployment charges; an unfriendly enterprise local weather and low-performing colleges — issues he, maybe unsurprisingly, pinned on Democrats who lead the state.
“It’s unimaginable to me that Californians will vote for extra of the identical when what we’ve acquired is so damaging to individuals’s every day lives. Individuals are hurting so badly,” Hilton stated. “How can the Democratic Social gathering be reelected? I believe in the long run, the information and substance will probably be determinative and other people will vote for change subsequent yr.”
Bianco, in the meantime, projected confidence that voters would select him.
“We are able to lastly vote for one thing totally different — and everybody says that I’m totally different,” he stated. “So both vote for anyone totally different that’s going to alter issues or preserve voting for a similar stuff that we vote for each single election, the dishonest, disingenuous politician that simply tells us what they suppose we need to hear.”
Will Trump endorse?
In California, whoever finishes within the high two spots within the major advances to the overall election, no matter political affiliation.
Two polls launched final month confirmed former Rep. Katie Porter, a Democrat, main the general area of gubernatorial candidates.
Each polls additionally had Bianco polling higher than Hilton: Within the Citrin Middle and POLITICO ballot, Bianco had 15% voter help versus 10% for Hilton. (Bianco additionally had the sting over Hilton amongst registered Republicans, 37% to 26%.) Within the survey performed by UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Research and co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Occasions, Bianco had 10% voter help in comparison with 6% for Hilton.
However, current polls by Emerson School confirmed Hilton forward of Bianco. In August, Hilton had 12% voter help in comparison with 7% for Bianco in that survey. This month, Hilton, at 10%, continued to ballot forward of Bianco, who had 8%, although the hole had narrowed.
However the major election continues to be eight months away, and many citizens stay undecided about their selection.
Rob Stutzman, who dealt with communications for then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, stated the first distinction between Hilton and Bianco would be the title accompanying their names on the poll. Early polls counsel that when Bianco is recognized as a “sheriff,” he performs higher, Stutzman stated. He stated will probably be attention-grabbing to see what Hilton’s poll designation says.
As well as, Stutzman stated, if Trump finally ends up endorsing within the race, that may very well be a game-changer.
He expects each candidates to vie for the president’s endorsement, regardless of the probability that Democrats would use the endorsement to negatively tie the candidate to Trump.
“If both of them one way or the other turns into aggressive towards a Democrat in a runoff (election), the Democrat will tie them to Trump both method,” Stutzman stated. “So that you would possibly as nicely get the advantage of the Trump endorsement to emerge from the first.”
Fleischman agreed that if Trump determined to endorse, his help would finish the candidacy of the one that didn’t get the backing.
“Trump has a relationship with Hilton as a result of Trump calls all of the Fox Information hosts straight,” Fleischman stated. “However that doesn’t imply that Trump goes to endorse him as a result of Trump can be keen on lawmen and conservative Republicans.”
“It might be,” he continued, “that Trump decides ‘that’s not one thing I must get in the course of.’”
