An independent committee has booked a Super Bowl TV ad supporting San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan’s gubernatorial bid in major California media markets, San Jose Inside has confirmed.
The Back to Basics California committee, aligned with the San Jose mayor’s policy agenda but operating independent of his campaign, is spending $1.5 million to produce and buy the spot during TV’s most watched telecast this Sunday, according to multiple sources with direct knowledge about the buy.
Mahan is the only candidate for California governor with a Super Bowl ad. The bold stroke, coming one week after he announced his candidacy, is likely to send tremors across the state's political landscape.
Today's Los Angeles Times headline read: “With a Super Bowl ad, California governor’s race is now kicked into gear.”
The ad will appear in select metro markets, including Los Angeles, San Diego and Sacramento – but not on Bay Area stations for which Super Bowl slots were already sold out.
It will appear in the Super Bowl broadcast on NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service, which will feature the big game along with NBC, and on other broadcast networks, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Mahan kicked off his “back to basics” campaign for governor on Jan. 29 as a late entrant to a field of nine Democrats and two Republicans. Mahan hopes to succeed two-term Gov. Gavin Newsom for the coveted job of leading the nation’s largest state.
The independent committee’s ad buy coincides with a successful fundraising drive by the Mahan campaign that he said Friday has raised more than $7 million in the first week of his campaign. That's more than the election-to-date totals of everyone else in the field, excepting self-funding billionaire Tom Steyer.
Mahan is staking out a middle ground in a primary campaign that's just four months long. June 4 is an open primary, with the top two finishers facing off in November.
The Mahan for Governor 2026 campaign committee filed its first paperwork today with the California Secretary of State, with no details except reporting names of treasurer Ted Trujillo of San Martin and assistant treasurer Stacy Owens of Oakland.
An independent committee, Mahan for Governor 2026, California Back to Basics Supporting Matt filed today as well, but included no further information.
The 501 (c) (4) corporation filed its articles of incorporation on March 25, 2024, ten days after registering the domain name backtobasicssj.com. A San Francisco law firm was listed at its address.
The advocacy organization established social accounts on Instagram and X.com in July of 2024. Adrian Rafizadeh, now managing Mahan’s gubernatorial campaign, was listed as its CEO in a November 20, 2024 filing with the state. In December 2025, Mahan chief of staff Jim Reed took leave to run the organization. On January 29, Mahan jumped into the governor’s race.
The IE committee has so far raised more than $3.2 million, committee spokesman Matt Rodriguez told the LA Times. Rodriguez said funding came from Silicon Valley executives, including Y Combinator’s Michael Seibel, Riot Games co-founder Marc Merrill, Bay Area venture capitalists Neil Mehta and Brian Singerman, and investor Paul Wachter.
Besides Mahan, the wide-open race includes 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 and climate activist Tom Steyer; state Superintendent of Instruction Tony Thurmond; former state controller Betty Yee; former state Assembly leader Ian Calderon; two Republicans, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and former Fox News host Steve Hilton; and Green Party candidate Butch Ware.
Steyer, whose self-funded campaign has already spent $27 million, will run an ad during Animal Planet's Puppy Bowl before Sunday's football game, the Los Angeles Times reported.
