California gubernatorial candidate Chad Bianco unveils sports vision for state

A lifelong New York Yankees fan is asking the people of California to make him their next governor.

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, who grew up in the heyday of the 1970-80s Yankees-Dodgers rivalry, admitted he had mixed feelings when Shohei Ohtani and company beat his boyhood team in the 2024 World Series.

“I did [celebrate]. I was upset because I wanted the Yankees to win, but at the time I noticed as a baseball fan that the Dodgers were a better team. The Dodgers deserved to win and I was very happy to be from the Los Angeles area,” Bianco told Pakinomist Digital.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON Pakinomist

Around the same time, Bianco saw one of his fellow Republicans, and a fixture in the 70s-80s Dodgers-Yankees rivalry, former Dodgers star Steve Garvey, running for a US Senate seat in California. Bianco campaigned with Garvey. But Garvey fell far short against Democratic incumbent Adam Schiff that year.

Now Bianco, currently the front-runner for the California governorship in many polls in 2026, believes two years of Democratic leadership since Garvey’s failed run has only strengthened the case for voting Republican in the Golden State.

“We’re in a slightly worse scenario than we were in 2024,” Bianco said. “Californians are realizing that politics is corrupt, our state government is corrupt, and crime is truly out of control.”

And sports have not been spared any worries in the state.

With the Winter Olympics now over and the Summer Olympics coming to Los Angeles just over two years from now, anxiety has risen over the possibility of the city hosting the Games, due to crime, homelessness, damage from the 2025 wildfires and rising taxes.

And on the youth front, the state faces an ongoing wave of biologically male transgender athletes competing in girls’ high school sports, as California’s leadership has refused to comply with President Donald Trump’s mandate to ensure that only female athletes compete in girls’ sports. The state’s denial has prompted a Justice Department lawsuit, several federal investigations as dozens of California girls face life-changing trauma, with some lawsuits of their own.

Bianco believes he has solutions to both problems.

Olympics in LA 2028

As sheriff, Bianco believes that if Los Angles were to host the Olympics this summer, in the city’s current state, it would not be possible to do so.

“No, I don’t think so,” Bianco said of the city being able to host the games if they took place this year.

“Everybody’s wondering how they’re going to put on the Olympics… we don’t have the money to dedicate to this, we don’t have the updated resources to dedicate to this, for transportation or even housing… I think it’s absolutely embarrassing… I think the United States will have a great Olympics, but for the city of Los Angeles, it’s certainly not a proud moment.”

Bianco pointed to financial mismanagement and alleged fraud in state government.

Los Angeles continues to experience one of the nation’s largest homeless populations, with approximately 72,000+ individuals, driven by a severe lack of affordable housing and high rents, according to the LA Homeless Services Authority.

Bianco warned of what he expects Democratic leadership to do if they remain in power as the Olympics approach.

“They’re going to go in at the last minute and they’re going to forcibly remove them all, and it’s not like they’re removing them, they’re just forcing them to the fringes away from the perimeter of where these events are going to be,” Bianco said. “It’s not good for anybody, it’s not good for those events, it’s not good for those neighborhoods, it’s certainly not good for the people who are homeless.”

Bianco said a more feasible solution would require possibly several years of resource allocation, which he hopes to undertake as the state’s next governor. He would eliminate funding for

“We’re going to have a year, possibly a year and a half to two years, to make sure we address the homeless situation, and I guarantee you that’s enough time,” Bianco said.

“It’s really not homelessness, it’s not home, it’s drug and alcohol addiction, combined with mental health issues. And we have to be honest and we have to start addressing it for what it is. So you take away all the money that goes to the non-profits and NGOs that gets wasted, misused and brought back into politics. You stop that immediately.

“You put a little bit of that into the drug and alcohol rehab and the mental rehab and the centers that treat both. Because right now, they don’t exist. I can almost guarantee you that we can solve 90% of the homeless problems that we see on the streets within the first year. By the second year, we can have it all gone.”

There is also the issue of financial burden for athletes coming to the state.

Bianco pointed to the recent Super Bowl in Santa Clara and the financial burden placed on the players who competed in it simply because they had to pay taxes in California.

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold lost approximately $71,000 due to California’s strict “jock tax.” While he earned a $178,000 winning bonus, the week he spent in California for Super Bowl LX triggered high state taxes on him, amounting to about $249,000, as the tax applies to prorated earnings from his three-year, $105 million contract.

For the Olympic athletes coming to town in 2028, especially Americans, many of whom earn far less than the average NFL player, Bianco is concerned about how the state’s current tax system could put them at a disadvantage due to financial constraints.

“It’s going to seriously affect them with the cost of living here,” Bianco said. “They don’t make a lot of money … it’s astronomically more expensive than anywhere else across the country, so it’s going to be detrimental to these people.”

Bianco has proposed eliminating the state’s income tax, with the goal of replacing lost revenue with income from oil production. He has also stated that as governor he would eliminate the gas tax and oppose a “mileage tax.”

“Taxes hurt everyone,” Bianco said.

Trans athletes in girls’ sports

California has been the nation’s biggest hotbed for high school and college scandals involving biologically male trans athletes competing in girls’ and women’s sports.

Current California governor Gavin Newsom has said he believes men in women’s sports is “deeply unfair,” but has taken no steps to address it. Newsom’s office released a statement to Pakinomist Digital in September suggesting the issue is beyond his control and responsibility.

“For the law to change, the Legislature would have to send the governor a bill. They haven’t,” read part of the statement.

Bianco said Newsom’s office is not telling the truth.

“Every time he opens his mouth, he’s not telling the truth. He’s telling his version of what he wants you to believe. … The reality is the governor is the supreme leader of this entire state and he makes the rules,” Bianco said.

“It’s the governor lying to shift the blame to someone else because he doesn’t want to be held accountable for what’s happening in our schools and our girls because he wants to be president and he knows the majority of the country will never, ever vote for him, knowing he’s not going to stop this, so he’s blaming someone else.”

Bianco said he would use “power” as governor to make sure girls’ sports are protected.

“You’re forcing people not to,” he said of how to deal with schools that let men play girls’ sports. “In our high schools and in our school system, if they’re going to allow it, we’re not going to fund it. We’re not going to fund the school, we’re not going to give them their money.”

But preventing the problem from continuing is only half the battle. The fact is, the problem has persisted in California now for several years, and the state and many residents are dealing with the aftermath.

Young male children in California have even been moved to schools, without their parents’ permission, and later placed on girls’ sports teams and in their locker rooms.

UFC LEGEND ENDORSES LAW ENFORCEMENT CHOICE FOR CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR: ‘WE NEED HIS STRENGTH’

Now the state faces a lawsuit from the DOJ over its policy, while many schools face individualized lawsuits for related incidents.

Bianco believes he could “easily” settle the DOJ case simply by complying with Trump’s mandate.

But the individual incidents may require several steps, according to Bianco.

In Bianco’s home county of Riverside, two separate lawsuits have been filed against school districts.

A major state-funded university, San Jose State University, has been found by the U.S. Department of Education to have violated Title IX in its handling of a transgender volleyball player from 2022-24, and is facing a lawsuit from former athletes and a former coach over the same issue.

Bianco believes that the young women who have been affected by it deserve financial compensation, compensation from the schools and compensation directly from the state.

“Some [girls] have been seriously injured and some were just emotionally traumatized. The schools should pay for that. The state government should pay for it,” Bianco said. “Our civil process allows for monetary remedies for situations like this, and they should get tons of money because they’ve been seriously victimized.

“Certainly those arrangements have to be made for the lawsuits, the girls who are suing…you have to settle it…or you’re going to pay big money. So they’re going to get money out of this, and they should. They were wronged, they were wronged deeply.”

Under the current system, thousands of California school employees are legally bound to be complicit in the system that allows trans athletes in girls’ sports, but also the system that allows men to change genders without their parents’ consent or knowledge.

Some school employees have been fired for refusing to be complicit.

Bianco has a message for all school staff on how to handle this problem. He urges the school’s employees to risk their employment in the short term by not complying with state laws.

“Stand up and do the right thing,” Bianco told state school employees. “Thank God we have teachers who stand up for it and they do the right thing and they absolutely refuse and they get fired. Take the badge of honor. Because then you sue like these teachers do and now we find out they win…

“Your job as an adult is to protect our children.”

Bianco also warned of consequences for school employees who comply if he becomes governor.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE Pakinomist APP

“Absolutely,” Bianco said when asked if he would support consequences for school employees who comply with the state’s law on trans athletes in girls’ sports and gender transition for minors.

“The elected officials are only afraid of one thing, and that’s not getting re-elected, and when they know they’re not getting re-elected because they’re hurting our girls or because they’re not protecting our children, they’re finally going to be forced to do the right thing, and we’re going to make sure those changes are taken care of.”

Related article