It remains to be seen how his gubernatorial support from Trump-aligned tech figures \u2013 and his attacks on California\u2019s Democratic establishment<\/a> \u2013 might translate in an otherwise comfortable 2028 reelection appeal<\/a> to mostly liberal San Jose voters. But it\u2019s clear that residents, this time around, will know he\u2019s got his eyes on a higher prize, and that future policy proposals could be in furtherance of higher prospects.<\/p>\n Mahan\u2019s campaign declined to comment.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously he\u2019s very ambitious to run for governor after just a couple of years as mayor \u2013 it says a lot and it\u2019s not necessarily a bad thing, but a lot of people were surprised he\u2019d try to move as quickly as he did,\u201d\u00a0 Rich Robinson, a political consultant who\u2019s worked on presidential campaigns for Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. \u201cHe wasn\u2019t ready for primetime.\u201d<\/p>\n Mahan often struggled to reconcile his Democrat image with his campaign\u2019s financial support<\/a>.\u00a0He was the second largest fundraiser<\/a>\u00a0in the race at nearly $16 million, second only to the self-funded campaign of billionaire Tom Steyer at $216 million. And while Mahan often attacked Steyer in the register of a billionaire skeptic, he offered innocuous rationales<\/a> for taking money from the world\u2019s wealthiest tech moguls, including those who have expressed support for President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n Google co-founder Sergey Brin and Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale are among the Trump-aligned elites who maxed out their legally-allowed contribution into Mahan\u2019s campaign this year.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the troubling part of the campaign was the first thing most Democrats learned about him: He was getting money from allies of Donald Trump,\u201d Steve Maviglio, a Sacramento-based political consultant, told San Jose Spotlight. \u201cAnd that sort of doomed the whole candidacy.\u201d<\/p>\n Robinson said Mahan was on the upswing in the early days of his campaign due to his pragmatic \u2018nuts-and-bolts\u2019 policy approach. He had nabbed a coveted Super Bowl spot, an appearance on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and appearances on mainstream cable TV news.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was actually a good message, as \u2018I get s**t done\u2019 does appeal to voters, but then he started attacking fellow Democrats and getting in with the billionaire boys club,\u201d Robinson told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. \u201cI was disappointed with the messages that came out of that. I think he hurt himself long-term with the Democratic Party.\u201d<\/p>\n Some local Democrats, including Santa Clara County Democratic Party Chair Bill James, never bought into Mahan\u2019s message from the start. Still, the campaign has granted James clarity on some of the mayor\u2019s past decisions, including Mahan\u2019s public sizing up of Gov. Gavin Newsom over crime and anti-Trump politics on TV news stations across the state.<\/p>\n \u201cOne can see from the last couple of years that the mayor was preparing himself to be in the position to run as the outsider reform minded candidate \u2014 the conflicts he provoked with Gov. Newsom seemed now in hindsight to be calculated as branding himself as the change candidate,\u201d James told San Jose Spotlight. \u201cI don\u2019t think those conflicts served San Jose in any way.\u201d<\/p>\n But there remain plenty of locals who still have faith in \u201cMahan-mentum.\u201d The mayor\u2019s cool and calm debate stage presence helped show voters his campaign was about detailed policy proposals, not partisanship. In the process, he presented compelling cases at times for going beyond ambiguous, anti-Trump talking points favored by some candidates in place of actual ideas.<\/p>\n
![\"In-line](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/interactive-321838904008.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n