Who is Matt Mahan, the Newsom critic and political moderate entering the CA governor race?
As Gov. Gavin Newsom’s online trolling of President Donald Trump ramped up last summer, it drew attention and praise from many within the Democratic Party.
But one California Democrat was unimpressed. In an essay published by the San Francisco Standard, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan scolded Newsom, accusing him of both focusing on his social media presence over the state’s considerable problems and of setting a poor example for others in elected office.
“Instead of modeling themselves after a governor focused on these important issues,” Mahan wrote, “our politicians are instead watching our governor ‘succeed’ by making a ton of noise online, even sometimes at the expense of our state’s reputation. It might be a winning strategy for his presidential campaign, but it’s a losing one for improving the lives of Californians. And now even more politicians will try to get ahead with online antics rather than sensible policies.”
Now, Mahan wants to bring what he characterizes as a more pragmatic, less political focus on problem-solving to the governor’s mansion. On Thursday, he became the latest candidate to enter a crowded race to be California’s next governor, staking out a position as a moderate Democrat who claims to have a track record of solving the state’s thorny problems in the city he runs.
“We absolutely need a governor who can articulate the case for our values as a state,” Mahan told The Sacramento Bee in an interview Wednesday night, “and use the bully pulpit as well as our legal system to fight for our values, but we also need someone who fixes problems and is focused in a very disciplined way.”
If elected, he said, he would be both “fighter” and “fixer.”
Mahan has not shied away from clashing with Newsom. Perhaps most notably, he campaigned against the governor over Proposition 36, a ballot measure to impose harsher prison sentences on some drug, alcohol and theft crimes. Mahan was on the winning side of that measure, which received a large mandate from voters.
To reach the governor’s mansion, however, Mahan will have to introduce to himself to voters statewide and clear out a field full of other Democrats who have been campaigning for months ahead of the June 2 primary Some political observers have questioned whether a four-year stint as mayor of a city, that though being the state’s third largest, also doesn’t carry the cachet of Los Angeles or San Francisco, has given Mahan a high enough profile to succeed statewide in such a short period.
On Thursday, Newsom was asked about Mahan entering the race at a Bloomberg News forum.
“I don’t know enough about him, I wish him good luck,” Newsom said.
He was not familiar with Mahan’s criticism of his social media presence, he said. “I think it’s important what we’ve done,” Newsom said, “put a mirror up to the aberrant behavior of Donald Trump.”
Mahan is young for a gubernatorial candidate, at 43-years-old. Newsom was 51 when he was first inaugurated.
But Mahan’s political career has moved fairly quickly, going from his first public office in 2020, when he won a seat on the San Jose City Council, to running for governor in just six years.
Mahan won the mayor’s office in November 2022, emerging victorious from a tight race that took a week to call.
Mahan grew up in Watsonville, a strawberry-growing farm town near Monterey Bay. His mother was a teacher and his father was a letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Service. In an interview, Mahan described his upbringing as working class, and said “his lucky break” came through a scholarship to an all-boys Catholic school in San Jose. He went on to graduate from Harvard University.
After college, Mahan participated in the Teach for America program, then launched a career as a tech entrepreneur before entering public office. He has said he was swayed into tech by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, whom he met at Harvard. Zuckerberg, like other tech billionaires, have fallen out of favor with many Californians as he’s shifted to cater more to Trump and Republican interests.
Mahan, with his focus on public safety, hiring police officers and clearing homeless encampments from public spaces, has won favor with moderate voters and some of Silicon Valley’s ultrawealthy, while upsetting advocates who say he’s criminalized homelessness and drug addiction.
Mahan is married to Silvia Mahan and the couple has two young children.
In a post on X announcing his campaign, Mahan, who last year said he wouldn’t run for governor, attributed his change of heart to his wife.
“A couple weeks ago, I came home and my wife, Silvia, said something I almost couldn’t believe,” he wrote. “She looked at me and she said, ‘I think our state needs you.’ Because she believed I could help our kids. Help San José. And help California.”
This story was originally published January 29, 2026 at 12:55 PM.
