A blue state sheriff, who has been in law enforcement for more than three decades, is taking his tough-on-crime policies to the governor’s race to save his state from further decline.

“I’m not about doing the norm. I’m not about doing what we’ve always done. And it’s about pushing the limits for a reason and for the right reason,” Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco told Fox News Digital.

Bianco, a Republican sheriff in California and a supporter of President Donald Trump’s 2024 election, announced on Monday that he is launching a 2026 campaign for governor in the race to succeed term-limited Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“It is only our Democrat elected officials who are responsible for the decline of California,” he said. “What is it they have given us? Rampant crime, higher taxes, the highest cost of living in our nation, tent encampments in every major city, more fentanyl deaths, catastrophic fires, a broken home insurance market and people across our state are struggling to afford groceries and gas. Californians deserve better.”

People loot property during nationwide unrest following the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in Los Angeles, California, U.S. (REUTERS/Kyle Grillot)

Newsom’s office told Fox News Digital that beginning in 2025, California is implementing new public safety laws that “take a smart, strategic approach and build on the state’s work to address crime.”

“California is beginning the new year by building on its robust laws and strategies to protect communities and maintain the state’s near-record-low crime rates,” a spokesperson for Newsom’s office shared in a statement.

His office added that Newsom signed into law “the most significant bipartisan effort to crack down on property and retail crime in modern California history.”

In addition, his office said the California Highway Patrol launched operations throughout the state, targeting regional hot spots and areas of public safety concern. 

These operations were enacted to put a stop to organized criminal behavior, gun violence, gang activity, fentanyl and other illegal drugs, and sideshows and street racing in Oakland, San Francisco, Bakersfield, and San Bernardino.

“Together, these collaborative efforts with local law enforcement have led to more than 4,000 arrests, over 3,500 stolen vehicles recovered, and hundreds of illegal firearms seized,” Newsom’s office said. 

Right now, Bianco said their biggest concern in Riverside County is drugs, with fentanyl being the number one problem.

“The fact that we’ve had such an open border and the flood of fentanyl into the country, it’s infected every type of drug. So there’s no such thing now as a ‘safe drug,’” Bianco explained.

“We’re putting a lot of effort into our drug interdiction and drug cases against our cartels in Southern California. But at the same time, we have other issues, and we’re suffering from the same retail theft issues that everyone is suffering from.”

Bianco said what makes them stand out against liberal counties is that they are actively pursuing criminals and holding them accountable.

“We’re actually keeping criminals out of our area because they know that we don’t stop until we catch them. And it’s honestly not rocket science in law enforcement. If you’re doing the right thing and you’re doing the enforcement part of it, criminals want the path of least resistance. And if they know they’re going to get caught or there’s a fear of getting caught increased in one location over the other, they’ll go to the place where it’s less,” Bianco said.

The decline in California is something Bianco said he has witnessed and said it is “100% the failure of the state government that has caused the decline of California,” adding that “we have to be brutally honest and admit that progressive policies, progressive agenda and ideological drive for political purposes has been the destruction of California.”

“I think we’re at a point in society, particularly in California, where people are fed up, and they are begging for someone that they can trust. And I think that my experience, my 32 years in law enforcement now and six as the sheriff of Riverside County, people can look to me and know that they may not like what they hear, but they know it’s going to be the truth. And they know that what I’m doing is in the best interests of someone else, not myself.”