Matt Mahan
Matt Mahan is the Mayor of San Jose in California. He assumed office on January 1, 2023. His current term ends on December 31, 2028.
Mahan (Democratic Party) is running for election for Governor of California. He declared candidacy for the primary scheduled on June 2, 2026.[source]
Mahan completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2026. Click here to read the survey answers.
Mahan was born in San Francisco, California, and grew up in Watsonville. In 2001, he graduated from Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose, where he attended school on a work-study scholarship. In 2005, Mahan earned a bachelor's degree in social studies from Harvard University, where he also served as student body president. After college, he spent a year in Bolivia working on economic development projects and then spent two years as a Teach for America corps member in San Jose.[1][2]
In 2008, after Harvard dormmate and Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg encouraged him to pursue a career in tech rather than law, Mahan joined Facebook co-founder Sean Parker's fundraising application startup Causes, where he held positions as vice president of partnerships, chief operating officer, and chief executive officer and president. In 2014, Causes was sold to Brigade, a civic engagement platform also funded by Parker. Mahan was a co-founder and chief executive officer of Brigade. In 2019, Brigade's engineering team was hired by Pinterest, and its intellectual property was acquired by Countable.[1][2][3][4]
In 2018, Mahan was appointed to the San Jose Clean Energy Advisory Commission.[2] In 2020, he ran for San Jose City Council and was elected to represent District 10 with 59% of the vote. In 2022, he ran for mayor of San Jose, defeating Cindy Chavez 51%-49%. Municipal elections in San Jose are nonpartisan. Mahan is affiliated with the Democratic Party.[5][6]
In his first term as mayor, Mahan named addressing homelessness in San Jose as one of his priorities.[7][8] In 2023, he said in an interview, "One bright spot that I’m very proud of and I think my predecessor, Sam Liccardo, deserves a lot of credit here, has been the success of our quick build interim housing units. We’ve seen an 11% decline in unsheltered homelessness year over year and it corresponds, it tracks quite closely to our expansion of interim housing[.] ... And it seems to be working, and I think we should be doubling down on that and other programs that are working, such as paying homeless individuals to clean up the city. We’re seeing that program work as well."[1]
Biography
Matt Mahan graduated from Bellarmine College Preparatory in 2001. He earned a bachelor's degree in social studies from Harvard University in 2005.[2]
Elections
2026
See also: California gubernatorial election, 2026
General election
The primary will occur on June 2, 2026. The general election will occur on November 3, 2026. General election candidates will be added here following the primary.
Nonpartisan primary
Nonpartisan primary election for Governor of California
The following candidates are running in the primary for Governor of California on June 2, 2026.
| ||||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Ethan Agarwal (D)
- Toni Atkins (D)
- Eleni Kounalakis (D)
- Kyle Langford (R)
- Javen Allen (No party preference)
Endorsements
Ballotpedia is gathering information about candidate endorsements. To send us an endorsement, click here.
2024
See also: Mayoral election in San Jose, California (2024)
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for Mayor of San Jose
Incumbent Matt Mahan won election outright against Tyrone Wade in the primary for Mayor of San Jose on March 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Matt Mahan (Nonpartisan) | 86.6 | 144,701 |
 | Tyrone Wade (Nonpartisan) | 13.4 | 22,363 | |
| Total votes: 167,064 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Mahan in this election.
2022
See also: Mayoral election in San Jose, California (2022)
General election
General election for Mayor of San Jose
Matt Mahan defeated Cindy Chavez in the general election for Mayor of San Jose on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Matt Mahan (Nonpartisan) | 51.2 | 128,376 |
 | Cindy Chavez (Nonpartisan) | 48.8 | 122,329 | |
| Total votes: 250,705 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for Mayor of San Jose
The following candidates ran in the primary for Mayor of San Jose on June 7, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Cindy Chavez (Nonpartisan) | 39.1 | 65,501 |
| ✔ | | Matt Mahan (Nonpartisan) | 32.3 | 54,076 |
 | Devora Davis (Nonpartisan) | 10.9 | 18,235 | |
 | Raul Peralez (Nonpartisan) | 9.0 | 15,121 | |
| James Spence (Nonpartisan) | 6.9 | 11,549 | ||
| Travis Nicholas Hill (Nonpartisan) | 1.0 | 1,722 | ||
 | Marshall Woodmansee (Nonpartisan) | 0.7 | 1,199 | |
| Total votes: 167,403 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Jonathan Esteban (Nonpartisan)
2020
See also: City elections in San Jose, California (2020)
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for San Jose City Council District 10
Matt Mahan won election outright against Helen Wang and Jenny Higgins Bradanini in the primary for San Jose City Council District 10 on March 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Matt Mahan (Nonpartisan) | 58.5 | 15,387 |
| Helen Wang (Nonpartisan) | 22.3 | 5,865 | ||
| Jenny Higgins Bradanini (Nonpartisan) | 19.1 | 5,031 | ||
| Total votes: 26,283 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Campaign themes
2026
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Matt Mahan completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2026. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Mahan's responses.
| Collapse all
in me the values of hard work and accountability. I attended Bellarmine College Prep on a work-study scholarship and then graduated from Harvard, where I served as student body president. After teaching in San José schools through Teach For America and building tech companies focused on civic engagement, I was elected to the San José City Council in 2020 and then elected as mayor in 2022.
As mayor, I have focused City Hall on core quality-of-life priorities and getting local government back to basics. We have made measurable progress on improving public safety, reducing street homelessness, cleaning up our neighborhoods, and accelerating housing production. Under this approach, San José has seen a decline in unsheltered homelessness, scaled up interim and shelter housing at a fraction of traditional costs, and earned recognition as the safest big city in the nation.
I am running to bring this back-to-basics leadership to California. I live in San José with my
wife and our two young children — and I am fighting every day for all of our families.- Affordability
With accountability and true boldness, we can make California affordable again, starting with building the housing we can afford by cutting fees and regulations, using surplus government land, and dramatically lowering the cost of construction.
The number one way we can make California an easier place to live is to dramatically reduce the cost of homes and rents — which is within our reach if we work smarter and hold ourselves accountable to results.
We can address our needs for improved health, housing and public education without asking our people to pay more in taxes. Instead, let’s require government to spend the
money they have now better before they ask us to pay more. - Ending Street Homelessness A great state brings everyone indoors. We can do that by building safe and decent shelter and then requiring that our homeless neighbors use it when available. Homelessness should not be a choice we accept. It should be a tragedy we end. And we can do more than save billions of tax dollars by ending street homelessness — we will save lives. A compassionate California should help people who are a danger to themselves and others by requiring treatment for the drug, alcohol, and mental health conditions that lead to repeated arrests and trap people on the streets. It simply isn’t humane to let so many people live and die on our streets or hurt themselves and others.
- Fixing Our Public Schools Let’s remember that a better future that lifts more Californians into the middle class starts with lifting up our public schools. As a former school teacher, I understand the problem isn’t our kids – it is adults who won’t hold our kids, our schools, and our state to the highest academic standards. Let’s bring back the SAT, bring back the science of reading, and bring back the best public schools, colleges and universities in the nation.
eliminating waste. California is one of the highest taxed states in the nation and
independent analysts have clearly identified billions in fraud and waste. Let’s make
government accountable to results, root out the fraud, and require state, county, and local
governments to do better by working together before we ask hard-pressed taxpayers to
pay even more in taxes.
I believe – and I have seen in my home city of San José – that we can bring all Californians
of good will together to address massive challenges like the cost of housing, energy, our
have immediately won the support of Congressman Sam Liccardo, Senator Catherine Blakespear, Assemblymember Maggy Krell, Supervisor Matt
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
2024
Matt Mahan did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.
2022
Matt Mahan did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.
2020
Matt Mahan did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.
Campaign finance summary
Campaign finance information for this candidate is not yet available from OpenSecrets. That information will be published here once it is available.
See also
2026 Elections
External links
|
Candidate Governor of California |
Officeholder Mayor of San Jose |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 KQED, "Matt Mahan on Zuckerberg's Advice and Homeless Housing in San Jose," September 28, 2023
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 LinkedIn, "Matt Mahan," accessed December 10, 2024
- ↑ Office of Mayor Matt Mahan, "Meet Matt," accessed December 10, 2024
- ↑ TechCrunch, "Sean Parker’s Brigade/Causes acquired by govtech app Countable," May 1, 2019
- ↑ San Jose Spotlight, "New San Jose business PAC announces endorsements in council races," September 13, 2019
- ↑ The Mercury News, "2022 Election: Five takeaways from Election Night in California and beyond," updated November 9, 2022
- ↑ The Mercury News, "New law proposed to remove homeless encampments from creeks in San Jose, Santa Clara County," May 17, 2024
- ↑ SiliconValley.com, "Mayor: San Jose must tackle ‘crisis of homelessness’ and make tough choices," June 3, 2024
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Sam Liccardo |
Mayor of San Jose 2023-Present |
Succeeded by - |
| Preceded by Johnny Khamis |
San Jose City Council District 10 2021-2022 |
Succeeded by Arjun Batra |
