The race to lead the country’s biggest blue state has been defined by voter concerns about their quality of life in California and the influence of special interests in Sacramento.
It might not seem like the right moment for California’s next governor to come from Silicon Valley. Matt Mahan and a large group of Big Tech backers think it is.
Mahan, the mayor of San Jose, the state’s third-largest city, is waging an uphill battle as the lone Democrat — in his telling — willing to challenge his own party and how it tackles big problems in the era of Donald Trump. He often says Californians “don’t need MAGA, but we also don’t need more of the same.”
“He’s a strong Democrat. He makes it clear what his values are,” said Tracy Hernandez, co-founder and CEO of the New California Coalition, a group of business and civic leaders. But, Hernandez said, “I think that Californians are moving off of that hyperpartisan-at-all-costs (mindset) and demanding solutions.”
After entering the race in late January, Mahan has drawn attention for his efforts to distinguish himself from other Democrats, for his background as tech entrepreneur-turned-politician and, perhaps most notably, for the amount of money behind his candidacy. His campaign has raised $14 million, more than any other candidate besides billionaire self-funder Tom Steyer, whose campaign has spent more than $137 million on advertising.
Despite his supporters’ enthusiasm, Mahan has remained mired in the single digits in recent polls, overshadowed by Steyer and other better-known and more conventional Democrats. His low numbers will be reflected by his position on the edge of the stage at Tuesday’s gubernatorial debate hosted by CNN.
“I’m in the process of introducing myself to Californians, and I think that people are just starting to tune in,” Mahan told CNN in an interview last week. “We have a lot of people to get to know over the next few weeks.”
Mahan is leaning heavily on his three-plus years as mayor of San Jose, where he has clashed with fellow Democrats on homelessness, housing and public safety. His positions have also sometimes put him at odds with Gov. Gavin Newsom, a potential 2028 presidential candidate who cannot seek reelection due to term limits.
Between the support from the tech industry and his unorthodox standing inside his party, Mahan has a lot to balance ahead of the nonpartisan June 2 primary to pick the top two candidates for the November ballot.
Steyer has said Mahan is funded by the same people “who profit off your data, crush competition, attack unions, and pour money into surveillance and defense contractors.”
But for Mahan’s backers, it is a worthwhile experiment — with national implications.
“I do not believe we will have a Democrat in the White House until there’s a big blue state that is governed well, and right now there’s no big blue state that is governed well,” said David Crane, president of Govern for California, a pro-Mahan group that works to counter special interests in California politics, and who served as a special adviser to former Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The son of a teacher and letter carrier, Mahan grew up in Watsonville, an agricultural hub along California’s Central Coast, and would travel north to San Jose to attend a college prep school on a scholarship for low-income students. He then attended Harvard University and dove into politics there, serving as student body president.
While at Harvard, he met Mark Zuckerberg, who he says counseled him to skip law school and go into tech to “change the world.”
Mahan followed Zuckerberg’s advice. In 2008, he joined Causes, one of the earliest Facebook apps, which allowed users to promote their favorite nonprofits. Within a few years, he was its CEO, and in 2014, he co-founded Brigade, a nonpartisan online platform for civic engagement.
He won a seat on the San Jose City Council in 2020 and ascended to the mayor’s office two years later after a tight race against Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez, who had a longer record in local politics and more support among his council colleagues.
Going against his local Democrats and Newsom
In San Jose, Mahan has gone against fellow Democrats by pushing to build temporary housing, including tiny homes, for the city’s homeless residents and by proposing a police unit to arrest people for trespassing if they reject three offers of shelter within 18 months.
His critics say interim housing is not a long-term solution and that the arrest policy is too punitive. Mahan maintains he is acting with the urgency the issue requires.
On public safety, he split with most of his party’s leadership in 2024 by backing Proposition 36, a ballot measure to make some drug and theft crimes felonies instead of misdemeanors. Voters overwhelmingly approved it over the opposition of the California Democratic Party and Newsom, whom Mahan has criticized for refusing to fund the law.
Mahan has also clashed with Newsom on the governor’s social media tactics, penning a column last year that criticized Newsom’s team adopting a tone mimicking and mocking Trump on his governor’s press office accounts. Mahan ripped Newsom’s team for “belittling those who disagree with them.”
CNN has previously reported that Newsom and Mahan have a contentious personal relationship. Newsom declined to address Mahan’s gubernatorial bid during a Bloomberg event earlier this year in San Francisco, saying: “I don’t know enough about him, I wish him good luck.”
Asked for comment about their history of differences, Newsom’s office said it had nothing to add for this story.
Throughout his tenure, Mahan has also had tensions with organized labor and local Democratic activists, and he has kept his distance from the local party.
“He’s sort of like trying to operate outside of the Democratic Party while also not labeling himself as a Republican, which is fatal … for a statewide office in California,” said Bill James, the Democratic chairman of Santa Clara County.
Some of Silicon Valley’s heavyweights have become increasingly involved in state politics in an effort to rein in what they see as liberal excesses of the state’s Democratic leaders. They are also organizing this year against a proposed one-time 5% tax on the state’s billionaires that Mahan — like Newsom — opposes, arguing it would drive entrepreneurs out of the state.
Mahan has raised the maximum $39,200 donations from Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, Google co-founder Sergey Brin and Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings. Some of the biggest donors to an independent expenditure committee supporting Mahan, California Back to Basics, include venture capitalist Michael Moritz, who has given $3 million, and former Y Combinator Startup Accelerator CEO Michael Seibel, who has contributed $1 million.
During a recent debate, moderators pressed Mahan on whether he could be trusted to regulate artificial intelligence given those kinds of donations. Mahan said he understood both the benefits and risks of AI as a mayor who has moved aggressively to integrate it into local government.
“I am not afraid to regulate Big Tech or any other industry,” he said.
In an interview with CNN, he said there were “quite a few areas” where he would split with some in the tech industry who may be supporting him. He supports banning cellphones in K-12 schools, requiring parental consent for children under 16 to use social media, and wants data-center builders to fully cover energy costs.
“I’m not interested in trading one special interest for another,” he said. “I’m running against the whole corrupt feedback loop that we have in Sacramento right now.”
On Tuesday, Steyer’s campaign announced the endorsement of the Secure AI Project, a group that backed California’s landmark AI safety law last year, and took a swipe at rivals who “are being bankrolled by Big Tech.”
US Rep. Ami Bera, who endorsed Mahan, said it was “not a bad thing” that tech executives and other business leaders were lining up behind Mahan, because they drive the state’s massive economy.
“A lot of folks are looking at this the same way I am, which is that we can’t just do business as usual,” said Bera, who represents a Sacramento-area district. “I think that’s what’s attracting a lot of the tech folks. Obviously they’re centered around Silicon Valley and San Jose, and they’ve seen his track record up close, so I think that’s why they’re flocking to him, not for any other nefarious reason.”
Mahan’s biggest challenge, according to his supporters, is that he is simply not well-known enough, especially in a field with a self-funder, Steyer; a former congresswoman and Senate candidate, Katie Porter; and a former Cabinet secretary and state attorney general, Xavier Becerra. Back to Basics has now spent nearly $20 million focused on introducing him to California voters outside San Jose.
“We are 100% focused on getting more Californians to know Matt, because if Californians get to know him, he wins,” said Crane, the ex-Schwarzenegger adviser now backing Mahan.
April saw two major shakeups in the broader race: Former US Rep. Eric Swalwell’s exit after allegations of sexual misconduct, which he denies; and Trump’s endorsement of conservative commentator Steve Hilton. The remaining candidates have been scrambling to find new opportunities for support since then. Bera, who had supported Swalwell, flipped to Mahan.
A CBS News/YouGov poll, conducted April 23-27, found just 4% of voters said they would vote for Mahan if the election were held that day, though the highest-polling Democratic candidate — Steyer — only had 15% support, and about a quarter of voters were undecided.
Mahan’s supporters maintain he is still in the hunt.
“He is a fearless underdog,” said Hernandez, co-founder and CEO of the New California Coalition. “I’m not counting him out.”
