San Jos\u00e9 Mayor Matt Mahan announced he is running for California governor Thursday, pitching himself as a pragmatic Democrat who would prioritize state residents\u2019 quality of life over the principled progressivism that has become entrenched in California politics \u2014 including on crime, homelessness, housing and affordability.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m jumping in this race because we need a governor who is both a fighter for our values and a fixer of our problems,\u201d said Mahan, one of the state\u2019s most outspoken Democratic critics of departing Gov. Gavin Newsom. \u201cWe can fix the biggest problems facing California, and I believe that because we\u2019re making real progress on homelessness, public safety [and] housing supply in San Jos\u00e9.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mahan claimed policies under his watch have reduced crime<\/a> and the number of unsheltered residents<\/a>, helped police solve every city homicide<\/a> for nearly the last four years, and should be emulated statewide.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to follow through on that work by holding state government accountable for partnering with cities and counties to deliver better outcomes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Mahan, who has two young children and a wife, Silvia, who works in education, said last year that it wasn\u2019t the right time for him to run for governor, despite calls for him to do so from moderate forces in state politics and business. But he said he changed his mind after failing to find a candidate among the already-crowded Democratic field whom he felt he could support \u2014 despite meeting with several of them to discuss their plans if elected.<\/p>\n \u201cI have not heard the field embrace the kinds of solutions that I don\u2019t think we need, I know we need, as the mayor of the largest city in Northern California,\u201d Mahan said. In \u201cthe current field, it feels like many people are more interested in running either against [President] Trump or in his image. I\u2019m running for the future of California, and I believe that we can fight for our values on the national stage while being accountable for fixing our problems here at home.\u201d<\/p>\n Mahan, a 43-year-old Harvard graduate and tech entrepreneur from Watsonville, was elected to the San Jos\u00e9 City Council in 2020 and then as mayor of the Bay Area city in a narrow upset in 2022. In 2024, he was reelected in a landslide.<\/p>\n More recently, he has been pushing a concise campaign message \u2014 \u201cBack to Basics\u201d \u2014 and launched a nonprofit policy organization by the same name to promote his ideas statewide. His former chief of staff, Jim Reed, recently left his office to lead the initiative<\/a>.<\/p>\n Although he isn\u2019t well-known across the state, influential Californians in politics said he\u2019s nonetheless a candidate who should be taken seriously \u2014 including other moderates, such as billionaire developer and unsuccessful L.A. mayoral candidate Rick Caruso, and progressives who have not always seen eye to eye with him, such as Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Fremont).<\/p>\n \u201cMatt Mahan is a person of integrity who has made great progress on housing in San Jos\u00e9, cost of living, and public safety,\u201d Khanna said in a statement to The Times. \u201cHe is a terrific Mayor and would be a formidable candidate for Governor.\u201d<\/p>\n While in office, Mahan has cut a decidedly moderate path<\/a> while eschewing some progressive policies that other party leaders have championed in a state where Democratic voters far outnumber Republicans.<\/p>\n He has backed Newsom, a two-term governor and potential Democratic presidential candidate, on some of the governor\u2019s signature initiatives \u2014 including Proposition 1, a plan to ramp up and in some instances require people on the street to undergo mental health treatment. He also joined Newsom in opposing a proposed wealth tax on California billionaires, saying it would \u201cbackfire\u201d by driving business out of the state \u2014 including in Silicon Valley\u2019s tech sector, where many of his constituents work.<\/p>\n However, Mahan has not been shy about criticizing Newsom, either \u2014 including for taking a brash, Trump-like online demeanor in pushing back against Trump and other critics of California, including in the business world, and for not doing more to solve entrenched issues such as crime, drug addiction and homelessness.<\/p>\n He broke with Newsom and other Democratic leaders to back Proposition 36, the 2024 ballot measure that increased penalties for theft and crimes involving fentanyl. After the measure was passed overwhelmingly by voters, he accused Newsom of failing to properly fund its statewide implementation.<\/p>\n Mahan also pushed through a plan in San Jos\u00e9 to arrest people on the street who repeatedly decline offers of shelter, which some progressives lambasted as inhumane.<\/p>\n San Jos\u00e9, California\u2019s third-most populous city after Los Angeles and San Diego, has a growing reputation<\/a> for being a safe big city \u2014 with a recent report by SmartAsset ranking it the safest large city in the United States based on factors such as crime rates, traffic fatalities, overdose deaths and median income.<\/p>\n Mahan said income inequality is \u201ca very real issue\u201d and \u201ca threat to our democracy.\u201d But he said the solution is not the proposal being floated to tax 5% of the assets of the state\u2019s billionaires to raise funds for healthcare. He said the proposal would have the opposite effect and diminish state tax revenue by driving wealthy people out of the state, as similar policies have done in European countries<\/a> that have implemented them, but he did not specify how he would backfill the impending federal healthcare funding cuts that will affect the state\u2019s more vulnerable residents.<\/p>\n He said he has heard directly from business leaders and others in Silicon Valley who are worried about the impact of such a tax, which they believe \u201cstrikes right at the heart of Silicon Valley\u2019s economy, which has been an engine of prosperity and economic opportunity for literally millions of people in our state.\u201d <\/p>\n He said California should instead focus on \u201cclosing loopholes in the tax code that allow the wealthiest among us to never pay taxes on their capital gains,\u201d and on finding ways to make government more efficient rather than \u201calways going back to the voters and asking them to pay more.\u201d<\/p>\n Mahan said San Jos\u00e9 has made \u201cmeasurable progress\u201d on the issues that voters raise with him at the grocery store: \u201ccrime, the high cost of living, unsheltered homelessness, untreated addiction.\u201d But the city is limited in what it can do without \u201cstate leadership and real accountability in Sacramento and at the county level,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Mahan has already elicited early support among wealthy venture capitalists and tech industry leaders, who would be able to bankroll a formidable campaign.<\/p>\n