![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770424809_142_LNM-20250616-SJSPOTLIGHTLOGO-01.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nMahan, who\u00a0announced his candidacy last week<\/a>, became a primary target for candidates\u2019 jabs over his rising political profile, record on addressing homelessness and favor among Silicon Valley\u2019s centrist and conservative tech elite. But the attacks teed him up for clever responses that roused audience applause on multiple occasions \u2014 boosting his share of the limelight on stage and\u00a0turning the head of at least one post-debate TV news analyst<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI have to say \u2014 sorry to keep picking on Matt \u2014 but he just said in an interview that the thing he most admires about Gavin Newsom is his record on homelessness. You\u2019ve got to be kidding, Matt,\u201d Hilton said during the forum.<\/p>\n By this point, Hilton had already blasted Mahan\u2019s positions on housing and being\u00a0against a statewide billionaire tax<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cHe didn\u2019t agree with me about capping taxes on housing. He likes taxes, apparently, unless they\u2019re (for) billionaires,\u201d Hilton said earlier.<\/p>\n Sparring over homelessness<\/p>\n Mahan readily hit back.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll just note that Steve, you came to San Jose just a week ago to see what\u2019s working in San Jose because we\u2019ve been reducing unsheltered homelessness faster than any other city in the state,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t know what\u2019s changed in the last week \u2014 it seems that it\u2019s the fact that I jumped into this race \u2014 and frankly that\u2019s exactly wrong with our politics, is that an idea is good one day until the other side (has them).\u201d<\/p>\n In December, as Mahan\u00a0mulled over a decision to jump in the race<\/a>, he\u00a0invited several candidates to tour San Jose\u2019s temporary homeless housing sites<\/a>\u00a0in an effort to impress his ideas on the state\u2019s next top leader. At the time, Mahan said he was looking for a change agent governor, before ultimately deciding he fit definition best.<\/p>\n A small group of Mahan supporters gathered for an informal watch party at Pier 402, a restaurant on Race Street in San Jose.<\/p>\n \u201cAll these other (candidates) are not change agents,\u201d San Jose resident Terrence Reilly, who helped organize the largely impromptu gathering, told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. \u201cThey\u2019re not doing what\u2019s best for California. If (Mahan) could take over the state and frickin whip it, yeah, I think it would be good.\u201d<\/p>\n Mahan touted his experience teaching public school in East San Jose to argue that California\u2019s education problems don\u2019t just stem from lack of investment. Mahan taught from 2006 to 2008 at Alum Rock Middle School through Teach for America.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s also a lack of accountability,\u201d Mahan said. \u201cThe truth is we need to have high expectations for our kids. We need to assess their learning and we need to intervene in ways that work: High dosage tutoring, summer programs, youth jobs to build confidence, ensuring every kid has a pathway to participating in our economy and thriving in our society.\u201d<\/p>\n Addressing affordability<\/p>\n On affordability, Mahan said the \u201cbiggest drivers\u201d of California\u2019s crushing cost of living are the obstacles developers face to build housing. He touted recent San Jose City Council votes to\u00a0boost developer incentives and waive fees for downtown office conversions<\/a>. On energy bills, Mahan called for data centers to pay the full cost of infrastructure upgrades so it \u201cdoesn\u2019t fall on ratepayers.\u201d<\/p>\n Steyer questioned Mahan\u2019s commitment to affordability.<\/p>\n \u201cRight now, the big tech CEOs are terrified about the idea of paying their fair share. Right now, they\u2019re supporting Matt,\u201d Steyer said. \u201cI\u2019m the billionaire who\u2019s going to take on the billionaires for working families.\u201d<\/p>\n Then came Mahan\u2019s final retort of the night.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve got about three billion reasons not to trust your answer,\u201d Mahan said in an apparent reference to Steyer\u2019s net worth.<\/p>\n Forbes\u00a0listed Steyer<\/a>\u00a0at $2 billion as of Wednesday.<\/p>\n Contact Brandon Pho at\u00a0brandon@sanjosespotlight.com\u00a0or @brandonphooo on X.<\/p>\n This story originally appeared in San Jose Spotlight.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE MAYOR MATT MAHAN faced his first major test as a contender for California governor Tuesday during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167471,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[3702,3703,80567,3705,20865,27383,208,26532,80568,22331,35072,989,457,943,80569,1493,12055,11171,4421,13,88,90,89,881,198,17382,25299,23894,3707],"class_list":["post-167470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-antonio-villaraigosa","tag-betty-yee","tag-california-governor-race","tag-campaign","tag-candidates","tag-climate-policy","tag-cost-of-living","tag-debate","tag-debates","tag-education-policy","tag-election-2026","tag-elections","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-governor","tag-gubernatorial-election","tag-homelessness","tag-housing-affordability","tag-immigration-policy","tag-matt-mahan","tag-politics","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-san-jose-spotlight","tag-santa-clara-county","tag-steve-hilton","tag-tom-steyer","tag-tony-thurmond","tag-xavier-becerra"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167470","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=167470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"YouTube](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770424810_776_hqdefault.jpg\")
<\/p>\n