Riverside County, California, has historically been a pretty moderate-to-conservative place, historically speaking; it was the only Southern California county to vote to recall the impeccably coiffed Governor Gavin Newsom in 2021. The county’s political party registration is 40.49 percent Democrat to 31.31 percent Republican, with the balance independent or “other parties.” The county contains parts of six congressional districts, evenly split between Democrats and Republicans.
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So, Riverside County is not really a far-right or far-left locale. In presidential elections, voters tended to lean Republican until 2008, after which it went for Democrats.
This year may be different if the elected county sheriff, Chad Bianco, is any indicator.
In the video, Sheriff Bianco cites his 30 years in law enforcement. He criticized Governor Newsom and the state government:
For the last five years, I’ve been very critical of the Governor for slashing our budgets, from Corrections, for letting prisoners out early, for closing our prisons. I’ve been critical of our state legislature for passing laws that make it harder to put people in prison. I’ve been critical for them changing laws that let prisoners out early, and I’ve been critical of our Attorney General for seemingly not caring about crime and really being an embarrassment to law enforcement. And this love affair that the Governor and our state legislature have with criminals is based on the belief that criminals are not responsible for their own actions, that they are victims of society.
The sheriff is clearly not enamored of the way the Democrat-dominated state government is handling affairs, particularly where law enforcement or the prison system are concerned.
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Here, though, is where Sheriff Bianco really lays down the law, stating that he is reconsidering his political positions:
I wonder if I’m having a change of heart, that maybe I’ve been wrong. And, I think I’m going to change teams. I know that’s going to make some of you angry, that some of you will be mad at me, but I’m going to change teams. I think they’re on to something but I don’t think they’re doing enough. I think that we need to go big. You know me, go big or go home, you do the biggest, you do the best, you’re the best at everything, you might as well do something right if you’re going to do it. And, I’m all in. I hope that you’re all with me, I hope that you all have this change of heart, that you all feel this is definitely the right thing to do, and come alongside me in this venture. I think it’s time that, instead of letting them out of jail, and giving them alcohol and drugs and everything else, I think it’s time we put a felon in the White House. (Pause.) Trump 2024, baby. Let’s save this country, and make America great again.
Riverside County has felt the effects of incompetence on the part of the federal government as well. Two Riverside natives, Marines Kareem Nikoui and Hunter Lopez, were killed in the Abbey Gate suicide bombing in Afghanistan during the Biden administration’s headlong, incompetent flight from that war-torn country.
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The Democrats seem to be bleeding some key people – and plenty of folks are not fond of the way some on the left show their displeasure when they lose an election.
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The sheriff made this statement with a certain mastery; while he speaks with a gritty, down-to-earth tone, he has a gift for rhetoric. Every issue he mentions is at the local or state level; not until the very end does he smack us with his intent to take the top-down approach: to vote for Donald Trump.
Well-spoken, Sheriff Bianco. We certainly hope your constituents, the people of Riverside County, are listening. And we can hope that many other people are hearing you as well.