{"id":1410,"date":"2026-06-07T11:36:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T11:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=1410"},"modified":"2026-06-07T11:36:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T11:36:13","slug":"silicon-valley-bet-big-on-matt-mahan-for-governor-it-didnt-pay-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=1410","title":{"rendered":"Silicon Valley bet big on Matt Mahan for governor. It didn\u2019t pay off"},"content":{"rendered":"
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San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan entered the California governor\u2019s race in late January as Silicon Valley\u2019s disruptive bet: a young centrist Democrat, backed by influential tech leaders, promising to bring accountability and measurable results to Sacramento. Four months later, that experiment collapsed.<\/p>\n

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What went wrong? Some political experts blame Mahan\u2019s late entry that didn\u2019t give him enough runway to connect with voters and build his name outside the Bay Area, while others point to the messaging. Internal disagreements over strategy, including the role of tech donors, also emerged as a key reason Mahan failed to take off.<\/p>\n

Signs of cracks in the Mahan campaign began to show in April when the campaign severed ties with one of its top consultants, Eric Jaye.<\/p>\n

Mahan, a 43-year-old centrist Democrat, had been mayor of California\u2019s third-largest city for just 3 1\/2 years after entering politics as a city councilmember in 2020. He touted his record in San Jose, including what he described as progress on homelessness and housing approvals. The race to succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom was crowded, but also largely unsettled as a frontrunner struggled to emerge. Mahan brought to the race what he thought his opponents didn\u2019t: a \u201cclear and compelling\u201d vision for California.<\/p>\n

With his close ties to Silicon Valley\u2019s wealthy tech community from his own days as an entrepreneur, Mahan also had the financial support insiders believed was enough to make him competitive in such a short campaign. Donors to his campaign, as well as to the outside groups backing him, included Google co-founder Sergey Brin, real estate mogul Rick Caruso and Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan.<\/p>\n

But the money, outpaced only by billionaire philanthropist Tom Steyer\u2019s self-funding, was not enough. Nor was Mahan\u2019s message that Democrats needed to deliver better results. Even in Santa Clara County, his home base, the latest unofficial results Friday had him in fourth.<\/p>\n

Political experts said Mahan always faced a steep climb. Despite leading a city of nearly 1 million residents, no San Jose mayor has gone on to become California governor or U.S. senator, a reflection of how often the city has been overshadowed politically by San Francisco. A four-month campaign to get the attention of more than 20 million voters \u2014 many of whom were outside the Bay Area \u2014 would also be difficult.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe late entry was a virtual death knell,\u201d said Larry Gerston, a professor emeritus of political science at San Jose State University. \u201cIn this state particularly, where it\u2019s so populated and there are so many characters of notoriety, you just can\u2019t jump in. I think that was the most important reason he was not in the first tier.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Veteran strategist Mike Madrid, who helped run Democratic former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa\u2019s 2018 gubernatorial campaign, said the timing of Mahan\u2019s message also didn\u2019t fit the current political moment in which many Democratic voters view President Donald Trump as the party\u2019s central threat.<\/p>\n

\u201cTiming is everything in a campaign, and the timing for his message could not have been worse,\u201d Madrid said. \u201cPeople do not want to hear that the house has a cracked foundation when the house is on fire. What he\u2019s saying is in the Trump era, when Trump is the main threat in the minds of Democrats, he\u2019s saying the Democratic Party is the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democratic strategist Garry South, who has run several past gubernatorial campaigns, said that Mahan casting himself as the \u201cchief critic of the sitting Democratic governor\u201d likely didn\u2019t play well with many voters because Newsom remains popular within the party.<\/p>\n

But Mahan spokesperson Tasha Dean defended the campaign in a statement, arguing that the mayor went from a candidate not known statewide to \u201cessentially tied for third among Democrats.\u201d Mahan trailed\u00a0former Rep. Katie Porter by roughly 30,000 votes Friday afternoon in fourth place among Democrats and sixth place overall.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMatt put San Jose\u2019s people and progress on the map \u2014 raising the city\u2019s profile statewide and nationally as a model for success on seemingly intractable issues,\u201d she said. \u201cHe will continue to make life better for the people he represents \u2014 both by doing better in San Jose and demanding better from Sacramento.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Jaye, a veteran Democratic strategist who ran Newsom\u2019s San Francisco mayoral campaign, called Mahan\u2019s bid a \u201cmissed opportunity to elevate a young leader with an impressive record of embracing common-sense reforms.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an email, he said that a \u201cdonor coup\u201d took control of the campaign at a time when Mahan was \u201cleading in the attention economy by focusing on bold ideas that openly challenged political orthodoxy.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response to questions about Jaye\u2019s comments, Dean said in a statement that \u201cunfortunately, no consultant likes to be replaced during a campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jaye wanted to hold off on pushing out expensive ads until ballots landed in mailboxes and voters were paying more attention. But his vision conflicted with what many in Mahan\u2019s inner circle believed was the correct strategy: they needed to communicate early and aggressively if he had a shot at building a statewide profile,\u00a0according to a source familiar with the campaign.<\/p>\n

Jaye argued that the big spend on ads after his departure \u201cdrove (Mahan) down in the polls\u201d as his message shifted and his backers \u201cmade him sound like every other politician and look like another tech bro.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jaye characterized the campaign as going \u201cdark\u201d three weeks before the election when they were unable to attract more tech donors. A source familiar with the campaign confirmed the disagreement over strategy but disputed that the campaign went dark, while recognizing that spending levels dropped.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe early days of Mahan\u2019s campaign were about issues \u2014 about being a vocal and visible change agent who could reshape the California Democratic Party,\u201d Jaye said. \u201cAfter the campaign was taken over by donors, the political consultant cartel, and young staffers, it was attempting to walk a tightrope between pleasing billionaire benefactors without also displeasing entrenched Sacramento interest groups. It is predictable they tumbled to Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Politico reported in May that some of Mahan\u2019s Silicon Valley backers wanted to see results in polling before committing more of the money the campaign said it would need to succeed, much as they do with funding startups.<\/p>\n

Others argued Silicon Valley backing was itself a double-edged sword, giving critics an opening to paint him as a tool of billionaire technology interests. Billionaire Democratic rival Steyer, currently in third place and whose wealth was constantly raised by his rivals who questioned his progressive bona fides, noted in debates while looking at Mahan that while he was the only billionaire on the stage, he wasn\u2019t the only one in the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe became a vessel for this fever dream of the Silicon Valley crowd,\u201d Madrid, the strategist, said. \u201cThere was never any poll that said he was ever going to get more than 7%. I think (his backers) believed they could buy their way out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Tuesday night marked the end of the 2026 Mahan gubernatorial campaign, the mayor told supporters who gathered at San Pedro Square Market on election night that he wasn\u2019t ruling out a future run.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease don\u2019t think tonight is the last time I\u2019m going to ask you to come together to fight for a better California,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Read more PG&E doubles size of San Jose substation, plans further expansion<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mayor Matt Mahan’s late gubernatorial bid pitched him as a centrist Democrat, backed by tech leaders, promising to bring results to Sacramento; that experiment collapsed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1409,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nSilicon Valley bet big on Matt Mahan for governor. 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