{"id":166060,"date":"2026-02-06T02:16:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T02:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/166060\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T02:16:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T02:16:08","slug":"donors-give-over-3-million-to-boost-tech-friendly-california-governor-candidate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/166060\/","title":{"rendered":"Donors give over $3 million to boost tech-friendly California governor candidate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Business executives poured $3.3 million into a committee boosting Matt Mahan\u2019s bid for California governor as the San Jose mayor rushes to make up ground and Silicon Valley interests look to install an ally in Sacramento.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The effort \u2014 headlined by $1 million each from Y Combinator executive Michael Seibel and Riot Games co-founder Marc Merrill and his spouse Ashley Merrill with another $500,000 from tech investor Neil Mehta \u2014 could be crucial for Mahan if it continues to grow. The tech-friendly mayor\u2019s entrance to the race last week <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/01\/29\/can-silicon-valley-make-a-governor-matt-mahan-is-betting-yes-00756444?nid=00000150-384f-da43-aff2-bf7fd35a0000&amp;nname=california-playbook&amp;nrid=dd7daa35-c0a6-4ea6-a147-d41433c14394\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:enthralled Silicon Valley players;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">enthralled Silicon Valley players<\/a>, but he is still relatively unknown outside of San Jose and has less than four months to break through in a crowded June 2 primary.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Still, $3.3 million will not go far in a state as large and vast as California, where multiple media markets make it enormously expensive to run statewide campaigns.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The newly formed PAC is the latest example of business and tech titans seizing an opportunity to shape California politics. The wide-open governor\u2019s race is arguably the most important piece of the industry\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/02\/04\/woke-up-the-sleeping-giant-tech-goes-hard-on-california-politics-00765304\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:multi-pronged effort;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">multi-pronged effort<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">As an independent expenditure committee, it can accept unlimited donations, and media booking disclosures show it had already reserved $1.4 million worth of airtime earlier this week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The race to succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom is California\u2019s most unsettled governor\u2019s contest in years. The absence of a commanding Democratic frontrunner \u2014 former Rep. Katie Porter and Rep. Eric Swalwell have led in polls while falling far short of majority support as billionaire Tom Steyer has blanketed the airwaves \u2014 created an opening for Mahan, as did a pervasive desire in the business world for a centrist option.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Some executives are coalescing behind Mahan, who piled up nearly $6 million in direct donations in the week after launching. That infusion, combined with the PAC support, could help Mahan remain competitive with Democrats who have been raising money for months and who have stronger ties to influential labor unions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He will be up against the resources of Steyer, who has a near-bottomless ability to self-fund and has so far given his campaign around $38 million. Outside committees supporting Swalwell and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa have yet to report raising any money.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misstated the total amount reported by a PAC supporting candidate Matt Mahan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Business executives poured $3.3 million into a committee boosting Matt Mahan\u2019s bid for California governor as the San&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166061,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[80112,80113,7,2926,9,8,24115,4421,80114,80115,2280],"class_list":["post-166060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-ashley-merrill","tag-business-executives","tag-california","tag-california-governor","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-eric-swalwell","tag-matt-mahan","tag-michael-seibel","tag-riot-games","tag-silicon-valley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166060\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}