Political insiders expect San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan to announce his candidacy for California governor on Thursday.
The 43-year-old Mahan, a Democrat in his second term as mayor of the nation’s 13th-largest city, has strong Silicon Valley roots and has built a coalition of moderates and business leaders, often at odds with the more traditional labor support of Democrats.
Politico today published a speculative piece on the San Jose mayor’s candidacy, headlined “The case for (and against) a Matt Mahan run,” saying the mayor’s bid would “upend” the high-profile campaign for California’s next governor.
Politico reported that Mahan was “seriously considering running for governor and he’s had calls with supporters and donors in recent days to gauge their support.”
“I’m listening and learning a lot, and heavily weighing this potential run,” Mahan is quoted as telling Politico’s Playbook late last week. “I’ve committed to getting to a decision soon. I will say I’ve been overwhelmed by all the positive outreach.”
If he decides to run, the mayor would be a late-comer in a crowded field in the wide-open race, as the ninth Democrat: former Congress member Katie Porter; former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa; East Bay Congress member Eric Swallwell; former Biden cabinet member and California Secretary of State Xavier Becerra; entrepreneur Tom Steyer; state Superintendent of Instruction Tony Thurmond; former state controller Betty Yee; former state Assembly leader Ian Calderon; plus two Republicans, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, former Fox News host Steve Hilton and Green Party candidate Butch Ware.
A June ranked-choice primary is just over four months away. The top two vote-getters in June face off in November, regardless of party affiliation.
The latest California voter registration figures show Democrats with 45% of registered voters, compared to 25% Republicans and 23% No Party Preference.
Gov. Gavin Newsom is ineligible to run, because he is limited to two four-year terms.
Politico described Mahan as “an unconventional candidate,” because he has held no statewide office and has staked out independent positions on crime and homelessness. He has increasingly been at odds with Newsom over homelessness policies and complained about a sluggish Democratic-dominated California Legislature.
He took the unusual step last month to invite gubernatorial candidates to San Jose to tour his temporary homeless shelters. Republican Hilton toured a San Jose tiny home facility with the mayor earlier this month, and in December candidates Porter, Steyer, Yee, Thurmond and Calder met with Mahan to discuss the city's approach to homelessness.
Mahan has touted his homelessness initiatives as a success: decreasing the city’s unsheltered population by 20%, expanding the number of interim shelter beds, including the tiny-home villages, clearing highly visible homeless sites and forcing more people into addiction treatment.
In his first run for mayor, for the two-year term created by a realignment of mayoral election cycles with presidential election years, Mahan bucked the odds – and the local progressive Democratic establishment – as a moderate outsider, with strong funding from real estate and Silicon Valley interests.
He was outspent by then-County Supervisor Cindy Chavez, and then upset the labor-backed politician in a runoff after coming in second in the primary. Mahan easily won re-election in 2024 with just token opposition.
He has not been afraid to stake out positions in hotly contested issues. He opposes the union-backed proposal to tax California billionaires.
Mahan’s three years as mayor have been characterized by a strong social media presence, his attendance at street-level neighborhood events across the city, including neighborhood cleanups, and an openness to working with the more progressive members of the City Council.
San Jose, with an estimated population of 990,000, is California’s third-largest city.
Mahan was raised in Watsonville and attended Bellarmine College Preparatory on a low-income scholarship. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University with a degree in social studies. After Harvard, Mahan spent a year building irrigation systems in Bolivia, then taught English and history at Alum Rock Middle School in San Jose for two years.
In 2008, Mahan joined a tech startup, Causes, an early Facebook application focused on grassroots and public engagement that helped raise money for nonprofit organizations, and was named its president and CEO in 2013. In 2014, he launched Brigade, a platform for civic engagement that was acquired in 2019 by Pinterest.
He was first elected to the City Council in 2010.
A California Environmental Voters poll released this week found Porter and Swalwell in a dead heat in the governor’s race, with 11% support of likely voters expressing a preference for each of them. They were trailed by other Democratic contenders, with Steyer at 8%, Becerra at 5%, Villaraigosa at 3%, Tony Thurmond at 2% and Calderon and Yee at 1%.
The survey’s release comes ahead of a gubernatorial forum today hosted by the environmental group.
