Alex Villanueva

Candidate for Sheriff, Los Angeles County

Alex Villanueva was born in 1963 in Chicago to a Puerto Rican father and a Polish-American mother; his family later moved to Rochester, New York, and then to Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, when he was nine. He served in the U.S. Air Force and California Air National Guard from 1983 to 1985, then in the California Army National Guard from 1985 to 1992, retiring as a first lieutenant in the 2nd Battalion, 144th Field Artillery Regiment, 40th Infantry Division. He holds an associate degree from San Bernardino Valley College, a bachelor's degree in liberal studies from Excelsior College, a master's degree in public administration from Cal State Northridge, and a doctorate in public administration from the University of La Verne, where his dissertation examined leadership diversity in law enforcement. He taught criminal justice as an adjunct professor at Cal State Long Beach from 2006 to 2010 and served on the La Habra Heights Planning Commission from 2015 to 2018. Villanueva joined the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department in 1986 and spent 36 years there, rising from deputy sheriff (1986-2000), through sergeant (2000-2011, serving at Lennox and Carson stations, the Community College Bureau, and Advanced Officer Training), to lieutenant (2011-2018, serving at Century Regional Detention Facility and Pico Rivera Station as watch commander). In 2018 he defeated incumbent Sheriff Jim McDonnell, becoming the first candidate to unseat a sitting LA County sheriff in more than a century. As sheriff (2018-2022) he says he hired about 1,100 deputies in his first year to address a roughly 1,300-person staffing shortfall, secured $35 million in body-worn-camera funding, ended the department's participation in a federal program that paid the county to transfer undocumented inmates to ICE, and removed federal immigration agents from county jails, courts and patrol stations. His tenure was also marked by controversy: the county's Civilian Oversight Commission called for his resignation in 2020 after he repeatedly declined to appear before it; the state attorney general opened a civil-rights investigation into the department's policing patterns; a court-ordered jail-monitoring panel found deputy use-of-force and consent-decree compliance had worsened during his tenure; and outside reviews, including by the RAND Corporation, found that deputy subgroups sometimes described as "gangs" persisted despite disciplinary action he took against dozens of deputies on his first day in office. He declined to enforce a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for department staff, and the department built an emergency helipad above his private residence without required permits. He lost his 2022 re-election bid to Robert Luna, and lost a 2024 run for the LA County Board of Supervisors to incumbent Janice Hahn. Villanueva left the Democratic Party and registered as a Republican in May 2025. He is married to Vivian Villanueva, a retired 25-year LASD employee, and they have one child. He is now running to reclaim the sheriff's office in 2026, having advanced to the November general election runoff against incumbent Robert Luna after the June 2 primary.

Villanueva says the department is short roughly 3,000 sworn positions and calls rebuilding staffing his top priority. He points to fear tied to homeless encampments and proposes expanding Mental Observation Teams — pairing non-uniformed deputy personnel with licensed clinicians for 24/7 countywide coverage — modeled on the Homeless Outreach Services Team, which he says cleared encampments during his tenure without arrests or force. On accountability, he calls for objective documentation and investigation of every use-of-force incident, with administrative action when warranted or a referral to the District Attorney's Justice System Integrity Division for independent review. He rejects findings by oversight officials and outside reviewers that deputy "gang" subgroups persisted under his leadership, calling the claims a politically driven effort to defund the department and noting "not a single deputy has been identified as a gang member" through his process. On jails, he wants increased custody staffing to meet outstanding consent-decree requirements, improved physical conditions, and demolition of Men's Central Jail for a modern replacement facility. He also lists investigating public corruption among his top departmental priorities. No specific 2026 campaign statement on ICE cooperation or California's sanctuary law could be found; during his prior term (2018-2022) he ended the department's ICE-transfer program and barred federal immigration agents from county facilities.

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