Bizarre topic not fought over since the Great Depression becomes toxic center of California governor’s race: ‘Shows strength’

California’s governor’s race has taken a bizarre turn, and it’s all about facial hair.

For the first time since the Great Depression, voters could send a bearded or mustachioed candidate to the governor’s mansion, turning facial hair into an unexpectedly toxic political flashpoint in one of the nation’s biggest elections.

Republican rivals Chad Bianco and Steve Hilton are now battling over everything from crime and homelessness to mustache styles and beard authenticity as they fight for a spot in the June 2 primary’s top two.

Bianco, the Riverside County sheriff known for his thick salt-and-pepper mustache, has embraced the attention surrounding his trademark look.

Supporters argue the facial hair projects toughness and authority, qualities California voters are craving.

His allies have also taken direct aim at Hilton, accusing the former political commentator of growing a beard purely to compete with Bianco’s upper lip.

Hilton’s gray-speckled beard quickly drew national attention after Donald Trump Jr. praised it online as a “MAGA beard,” but Bianco supporters dismissed the look as forced and unimpressive compared to the sheriff’s longtime mustache.

Bianco has claimed Hilton only grew the beard to rival the mustache he has worn since his teenage years.

Hilton insists the beard wasn’t part of some political strategy.

According to Hilton, he stopped shaving during a family vacation, received positive feedback about the stubble and decided to keep it for campaign appearances after noticing strong reactions from voters.

He said he’s given “literally zero thought” to Bianco’s mustache, though he acknowledged critics have compared the sheriff’s look to Yosemite Sam, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The facial-hair feud has become so intense that even Bianco’s grooming style is under debate.

Some supporters classify it as a walrus mustache resembling the ones famously worn by Wilford Brimley and Theodore Roosevelt.

Others insist it falls closer to a horseshoe mustache similar to Hulk Hogan’s signature style.

Historian Sean Trainor, whose dissertation “Groomed for Power” examined the rise of political facial hair in the 19th century, said the country is entering “this kind of new bearded age,” the WSJ reported.

The timing is notable.

California has not elected a governor with facial hair since Republican James “Sunny Jim” Rolph, whose toothbrush mustache appeared in his official portrait before he died in office in 1934.

Rolph’s era marked the tail end of facial hair’s dominance in American politics, a trend once epitomized by President Rutherford B. Hayes and his famously massive beard.

Now, the look appears to be making a comeback nationwide.

Vice President JD Vance became the first facial-haired VP in nearly a century after President Trump compared his beard to a “young Abraham Lincoln.”

The last vice president with facial hair was Charles Curtis under Herbert Hoover.

Early polling suggested Bianco and Hilton were nearly tied and both could advance out of the primary.

More recent polls now show Hilton leading alongside Democrat Xavier Becerra, setting up the possibility that California voters in November could face a choice between scruff and a clean shave.

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