A week after San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan made a late entry into the governor’s race at the end of last month, he announced on social media that his campaign “might be making history” for how quickly it had gathered more than $7 million in political donations, vaulting him past most of his Democratic rivals in fundraising for the wide-open race.
It’s not yet clear who’s behind the donations. But Silicon Valley tech leaders — seeking a “results-driven” candidate ready to fight back a recently proposed wealth tax — have been at the forefront of Mahan’s early support.
The same day Mahan declared his candidacy, a DoorDash executive posted on social media that she was “so fired up” to back him, while a Bay Area venture capitalist cheered the mayor’s strong election odds in online prediction markets. Politico soon reported that tech heavyweights, including Y Combinator executive Michael Seibel and Riot Games co-founder Marc Merrill, had given at least $3.3 million to a newly formed independent committee supporting Mahan’s bid.
Unlike candidate campaigns, political action committees, or PACs, can raise unlimited amounts to promote or oppose candidates or measures. They are reliably major spenders in statewide elections and can swing voter support.
Mahan’s fledgling campaign has yet to file fundraising reports that would reveal its donors. The campaign said it plans to submit the reports later this week, in line with state disclosure requirements.
In response to questions about whether the tech industry is among Mahan’s primary backers, spokesperson Adrian Rafizadeh said in an email that the campaign is “attracting support from all corners of our state,” pointing to the mayor’s work on issues such as housing, homelessness and crime.
Mahan, himself a former tech executive, has deep ties to Silicon Valley, having received past start-up funding from Napster co-founder Sean Parker and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff. Like the current governor, Gavin Newsom, the 43-year-old mayor has also been a vocal opponent of a proposed one-time billionaires’ tax targeting California’s richest tech leaders — something the technology industry has rallied against, arguing it will kill jobs.
“The tech community has sort of woken up after the wealth tax,” Sacramento political consultant Steven Maviglio said. “He’s clearly going to enjoy their support.”
The influx of campaign cash has caught the attention of some of Mahan’s Democratic rivals. The day after his fundraising announcement, self-funded billionaire candidate Tom Steyer took aim at Mahan for his support from “wealthy tech elites.”
“This isn’t charity — it’s an investment so they get richer while everyone else gets priced out of California,” the Steyer campaign wrote in an email to supporters.
The Mahan campaign responded that the mayor, a moderate Democrat, intends to win the support of those seeking a governor who will “fight for our values and fix what’s gone wrong in our state.”The $7 million in fundraising gives Mahan one of the largest campaign war chests behind Steyer, who had already spent around $27 million through December on a barrage of television and digital ads, according to election filings.
Maviglio said Mahan could be among the fastest candidates for governor to raise such an impressive amount from individual donors. He said that despite Mahan’s late entry into the race, the fundraising surge shows the mayor is likely to run “a very aggressive and well-funded campaign” to replace Newsom, whom Mahan has sharply criticized for his response to the state’s quality-of-life issues. Newsom will reach his term limit early next year as he eyes a presidential run.
A Dec. 4 poll by Emerson College showed two Republicans at the head of the crowded field: Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco at 13% and conservative commentator Steve Hilton at 12%. Democratic candidates were led by East Bay Rep. Eric Swalwell at 12% and former Orange County Rep. Katie Porter at 11%. No other candidate surpassed 5%. Mahan entered the race after the poll, which has a three-point margin of error.
There have been no independent polls in the race since Mahan entered the fray. Swalwell’s campaign Monday touted an internal poll that put him in second place at 18% behind Bianco at 21%, with Mahan registering only 5%.
Democrats hold roughly a 2-to-1 advantage over Republicans in statewide voter registration. But under California’s election system, the top two candidates with the most votes in the June 2 primary will advance to the November general election, regardless of party affiliation. Some Democrats worry about a scenario in which the party splits the vote among its candidates, giving Hilton and Bianco enough votes to shut out Democrats from the general election.
Mahan, who has relatively little name recognition outside of San Jose, could see the uncertainty in the race as an opportunity. But to take advantage of the open field, he will likely need to gain quickly in the polls to convince donors he’s a serious contender, Maviglio said.
“Everybody wants to be with you when you launch,” Maviglio said. “Over the course of the next weeks, we’ll see where the polling lands.”
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