Free Republic

The California governor's race is heating up, with Emerson College polls showing two Republicans leading after Eric Swalwell's departure. Steve Hilton leads with 17%, followed by Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco at 14%. Democratic billionaire Tom Steyer is tied with Bianco at 14%. Trailing Democrats include former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and former Representative Katie Porter both tied at 10%. San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan follows with 5%. The poll also found that 23% of likely voters said they are still undecided, meaning the race remains wide open.

Progressive billionaire Tom Steyer has been telling California voters he wants to “abolish ICE” despite investing nearly $90 million in a company behind the state’s largest immigration detention center. The California gubernatorial candidate has tried to swat off that criticism, but in a recent interview with the Sacramento Bee, he said it was a “mistake.” “We never had anything to do with running the company,” Steyer said. “But it was a mistake to think that that was a place where it was decent to make money.” Steyer founded a hedge fund named Farallon Capital Management in 1986. Under his management,...

California Gubernatorial Candidate Steve Hilton joins Clay and Buck to discuss Eric Swalwell’s departure from the race, who he thinks inside the Democrat Party orchestrated the hit on Swalwell, and how he feels his campaign will deliver regime change in California.

On April 22, KRON4 will host a California gubernatorial debate airing across the state. On the Democratic side, former Rep. Katie Porter will join East Bay Congressman Eric Swalwell and billionaire activist Tom Steyer on the debate stage. On the Republican side, political commentator Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco will also take part.

Political media habitually use “race” to describe contests for public office. However the word implies movement and therefore would be inaccurate if applied to this year’s election of a new governor. Sixty-one names will be on the June 2 primary ballot, including 10 leaders who profess to be serious about seeking the office. However, they aren’t racing. Rather, the eight top-polling Democrats seem to be in a children’s game, sitting in a circle staring at each other, waiting for someone to blink. Meanwhile, the two top Republicans are taking potshots at each other, potentially undermining the GOP’s only chance to...

What the video is about: The video covers a heated legal and political battle in Riverside County, California. Republican Sheriff Chad Bianco (who is running for governor in 2026) used a judge-approved search warrant to seize over 650,000 ballots from the 2025 special election on Proposition 50 (a redistricting measure). Key events: Bianco's team (Riverside Election Integrity Team) flagged major discrepancies — for example, more votes tallied than ballots cast in some cases (over 45,000 in one reported instance). He launched an investigation into potential voter fraud. California's Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta and other Democrats strongly opposed the move,...

The University of Southern California (USC) and Los Angeles television station KABC tried to have a gubernatorial debate on March 24. The qualifying criteria for being invited included polling numbers and fundraising thresholds. Six candidates made the cut: four Democrats: Katie Porter, Tom Steyer, Eric Swalwell and Matt Mahan, and two Republicans: Chad Bianco and Steve Hilton. Democrat Xavier Becerra, who didn't make the cut, called the qualifying criteria "biased. Every one of those who were invited is white. They should all withdraw from this racist so-called debate." His reasoning was so powerful that USC decided to cancel the debate...

California Democrats were warned to get their act together months ago. Back off, consolidate, pick a front-runner or risk splitting the vote. They ignored the advice. Now the numbers are in and the results are brutal. A new UC Berkeley-LA Times poll shows the 2026 race for governor is a total mess for Democrats. Support is scattered across a crowded field while Republicans Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco have quietly pulled ahead. The data tells the story. Not a single Democrat tops 13% while the GOP contenders sit in the high teens. 16% of voters remain undecided leaving the door...

California's jungle primary system has created a path for Republicans to flip the state in a nightmare scenario for Democrats, according to new polling that shows the Democratic field splintering while GOP candidates consolidate. The Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll, conducted March 9-15, has Republican commentator Steve Hilton at 17 percent and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco at 16 percent, while the leading Democratic candidates are scattered below them. Representative Eric Swalwell and former Representative Katie Porter each sit at 13 percent, businessman Tom Steyer at 10 percent, and former HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra at 5 percent. […] The...

Apparently, it's panic time for Democrats in their one-party blue state of California. The Los Angeles Times reports that they are facing armageddon in the upcoming governor's race, whose "jungle" primary is in June. According to the Los Angeles Times: SAN FRANCISCO — Leaders of the California Democratic Party, along with liberal activists and loyal power brokers, are openly expressing fear that their crowded field of candidates running for governor may splinter the vote and open the door to a surprise Republican victory in November.SNIP The bottom line here is that Democrats wouldn't have this problem at all if they...

Something appears to be laughably missing in Politico's Saturday story about the June nonpartisan gubernatorial primary in California. Namely the front runner is a Republican, Steve Hilton, and another Republican is very possibly the second place candidate, both of whom would be facing each other in the November general election for governor.Is it a mere coincidence that Politico writers Blake Jones and Lindsey Holden completely ignored them because they happen to have the taboo (R) by their names which are completely AWOL in "Why Swalwell and Steyer are surging in California governor’s race"?The focus of the story (to the complete...

The majority of California Democrats do not want former Vice President Kamala Harris to make another White House run in 2028, according to a UC Berkeley/Los Angeles Times poll released Tuesday. Almost two-thirds of registered voters in California and 51% of Democrats said Harris should not seek the presidency again following her two failed White House bids in 2020 and 2024, according to the survey. Meanwhile, roughly 45% of California’s registered voters said they were “very” or “somewhat” enthusiastic about the prospect of Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom running for president, while 36% said the same about Harris. “She [Harris]...

California’s leaders like to boast that our state is a sanctuary. And it is — a sanctuary for criminals. Since the so‑called sanctuary laws went into effect in 2018, tens of thousands of criminal illegal aliens have walked out of California jails instead of being transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Violent crime has jumped nearly 20% statewide. That’s not compassion. That’s not progress. That’s negligence. Every preventable crime committed by someone who should have been deported is proof of these policies’ failure. Even in deep‑blue Los Angeles, some officials admit the obvious: violent offenders should be deported. That’s just...

Riverside County Sheriff and California gubernatorial hopeful Chad Bianco warned Republican infighting could sabotage the party’s best shot in decades to retake the state, blasting GOP rivals as “too stupid” to see what’s at stake.California’s open “jungle primary” system — where candidates compete on the same ballot and only the top two advance — makes GOP unity even more critical. With Democrats outnumbering Republicans roughly two to one, a split conservative vote could easily shut Republicans out of the 2026 general election entirely, Bianco said in an interview with the Daily Caller. ...***Under the system, every candidate from every party...

A Riverside County inmate sentenced to death was allegedly murdered in a state prison by another inmate, which led to a large mob attack on Friday morning, officials say.

Riverside County, CA Sheriff Chad Bianco has announced his entry into the race for California Governor to replace Gavin Newsom. The election is coming in November, 2026. Sheriff Bianco will be taking on current Democrat favorite Kamala Harris and others. No Republican has ever been elected governor in California since Arnold Schwarzenegger was re-elected in 2006...

COACHELLA, Calif. (KABC) -- The Las Vegas man who was arrested with weapons outside a Trump rally in Southern California is suing for alleged defamation following claims from the local sheriff that his deputies thwarted a third assassination attempt against the former president. After the arrest, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said in a press conference and media interviews that deputies who prevented Vem Miller from entering the event in Coachella over the weekend "probably" stopped a "third assassination attempt." Miller denies those claims. The 49-year-old, who is believed to be associated with a "Sovereign Citizens" group, has since been...

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco is scheduled to hold a press conference at 3 p.m....6 p.m. EST, regarding the arrest at the Trump rally Saturday night. The press conference will be live-streamed on YouTube, Facebook, and Riverside County Sheriff's website according to the department. It comes after a Las Vegas man was arrested Saturday near the site of former President Donald Trump’s rally in the Coachella Valley, according to the Riverside County Sheriff's Department. A shotgun, a loaded handgun, and a high-capacity magazine were seized from the vehicle. Officers took the driver into custody without incident and he was booked...

Donald Trump seems to have faced yet another threat to his life when a man presenting fake VIP credentials was taken into custody after a shotgun, high capacity magazine and loaded handgun was found in his vehicle at a rally over the weekend. Local law enforcement claims the incident is 'probably' a third assassination attempt. But a source close to the Trump campaign says the Riverside County Sheriff is mistaken. 'There was no assassination attempt in CA yesterday,' the source told DailyMail.com. 'A man at a perimeter checkpoint had a gun but there was no incident.' Vem Miller, 49, was...

A third assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump was thwarted at the last minute Saturday when local cops stopped a man armed with guns and fake passes outside his rally at Coachella Valley, the local sheriff said. The suspect was caught about a mile from the rally venue with a phony-entry pass, according to police. He was also carrying a loaded shotgun, handgun and high capacity magazine. “We probably stopped another assassination attempt,” Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said. The suspect, identified as Vem Miller, was intercepted by police at a checkpoint about a half-mile from the rally entrance....