Donald Trump has never come close to winning an election in California. But California has helped Donald Trump win two national elections.
Not because of our values. Because of our failures.
Wildfires that swallow up entire communities and recovery that takes too long. Massive tent encampments and open-air drug markets hollowing out once-thriving urban corridors. Unchecked suffering on our streets.
Two decades of broken promises to build more homes. The nation’s highest gas and energy prices. Public schools that now lag Mississippi and Louisiana in getting kids on grade level for literacy and math proficiency by the 4th grade. And a government that reflexively asks for more tax revenue before figuring out how to do better with existing resources.
Most of these problems are visible. All of them are visceral. They are the kind of things that get easily caricatured on cable news, made into effective campaign ads and turned into viral social media moments. “Don’t let this happen to your state,” the voice-over says. Next thing you know, a convicted felon is back in the White House.
We are a state with Democratic supermajorities in both houses of the Legislature, Democrats in every statewide office for 15 consecutive years, and Democrats occupying more than 80 percent of the seats in the nation’s largest congressional delegation.
So while many of my fellow Democrats may argue—and argue rightly—that critiques of California lack context or nuance, the reality is that Americans aren’t listening to such excuses, nor are Californians. There is a pervasive belief that in California we’ve failed to make things better in our communities, despite controlling every lever of power. And that failure gave Trump license to exact more harm and more retribution.
In order to win the fight against masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents terrorizing our communities, unlawful tariffs harming consumers and defunding of our research institutions, California needs to be a place that demonstrates to the nation that our values work in practice.
I’m a proud Democrat. I grew up in a union family in working-class Watsonville, surrounded by neighbors who picked strawberries, plowed fields and built things for a living.
I still remember what it’s like to hear my parents’ voices get quiet when they sat at the kitchen table and talked about how to pay the mortgage or an unexpected bill, like when our old cars broke down, which they often did. That memory keeps me focused on results Californians can feel in their communities and in their wallets.
Because that’s where Trump and Trumpism are weakest.
That’s what we’ve done in San Jose, the largest city in Northern California. Deploying a common-sense approach, we’ve reduced unsheltered homelessness by nearly a third. We made building housing faster and less expensive, resulting in thousands of new homes. We’ve reduced crime and become the safest big city in America. We’ve taken on our local utility, PG&E, and won grid upgrades and faster service responses. We don’t try to be everything to everyone. We focus on the basics. We make the hard choices. And we measure everything publicly, so we can identify what works, eliminate what doesn’t and earn the taxpayers’ trust in the process.
It hasn’t always been easy. It’s meant telling hard truths to close friends and longtime allies.
It’s meant occasionally challenging a governor I voted for twice. It has meant leading efforts to address the crisis of street homelessness, addiction and retail theft by passing Proposition 36—increasing penalties for repeat offenders and expanding treatment options—which we did over the objection of many party leaders. It’s also why I differ with many in my party on new proposed tax hikes, because you can’t argue for making things more affordable in one breath if you turn around and advocate to make California more expensive with the next.
At the end of the day, the crowded Democratic field for California governor isn’t a contest over core values; it is a contest between those who will prioritize practical solutions over performative politics.
Because of the outsized role our state plays in national politics, it is a contest not just for the future of California, but for the soul of the Democratic Party. What happens here in June can demonstrate that Democrats are ready to unite behind solving basic problems in ways that people can see in their communities and feel in their wallets. It’s about winning the fight between those in our party who confuse cable news appearances and clicks with real progress, and those who, like me, believe the best resistance is results.
California’s choice will have a lot to say about America’s future.
Matt Mahan is the Democratic mayor of San Jose and is running for California governor. Before becoming mayor he was a teacher through Teach for America.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.