Gavin Newsom says President Trump interrupted his Davos speech
California Governor Gavin Newsom said President Donald Trump blocked him from speaking at Davos.
- San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan has announced his candidacy for California governor.
- Mahan, a moderate Democrat, joins a crowded field of candidates seeking to succeed Gavin Newsom.
- He has previously criticized Gov. Gavin Newsom for focusing on national politics rather than state issues such as housing and poverty.
- Mahan points to San Jose’s achievements in reducing homelessness and crime as a blueprint for the state.
San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan is a political upstart who joins a long list of candidates for California governor when Gavin Newsom’s term ends later this year.
In a Jan. 29 post on X, the Democratic candidate announced his participation in the gubernatorial race “because we can do better.” The mayor said he has proven that by leading San Jose, the most populous city in the San Francisco Bay Area region and a longtime center of Silicon Valley’s technology sector.
“I’m running to bring the focus back to government,” Mahan said in a social media post. “To give cities the tools they need to succeed. To show that the best resistance to division is results. And to prove that California can work again. For everyone.”
Mr. Mahan, 43, was largely unknown on the national stage but quickly rose to prominence in California politics. He was elected to the San Jose City Council in 2020 and ran successfully for mayor in 2022.
When Governor Newsom criticized President Donald Trump on social media, Mahan praised him and loudly criticized him. Last year, Mahan wrote in an op-ed that Newsom was ignoring California’s high unemployment and poverty rates.as well as the state’s housing crisis and energy prices. Taking a “blind leap into memeland” while holding the highest position in the country.
“This may be a winning strategy for his presidential campaign, but it’s a losing strategy for improving the lives of Californians, and now more politicians will try to advance with silly online strategies rather than smart policies,” Mahan wrote in the San Francisco Standard in August. “The way we win the fight for a better California is by solving problems in the real world, not by stooping to Donald Trump’s level online.”
Brian Sobel, a longtime political analyst based in the San Francisco Bay Area, said Mr. Mahan isn’t afraid to be outspoken, even with members of his own party, which could appeal to some voters who want change.
“This was a refreshing perspective for someone who was thinking, ‘Hey, I can’t believe you’re here,'” Sobel said, referring to Mahan’s comments about Newsom. “Mahan would be an interesting candidate who could attract a lot of attention to see if he has the necessary qualities.”
Mahan enters crowded gubernatorial race
Mahan, considered a moderate Democrat, joins an already crowded field of eight Democrats and two Republicans, but no clear front-runner to run the nation’s most populous state, which is also the world’s fourth-largest economy.
Candidates include Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell, former Rep. Katie Porter, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, and investor Tom Steyer. Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and former Fox News host Steve Hilton are also Republicans.
Other notable candidates for California governor include State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and former Secretary of State Betty Yee, all Democrats.
The party’s primaries are scheduled for June. The top two vote-getters will advance to the November general election.
Mahan: “I want to fix California”
Mahan said last year that he would not run for governor, but has hinted in recent weeks that he would only run as a last resort.
Sobel said that given his limited political experience, Mahan needs to prove to voters that he is serious about running, especially how he plans to tackle key issues, including California’s $18 billion budget deficit.
“He’s going to have to make the case that he has the bandwidth and ability to do the job,” Sobel said.
“We need to fix California,” Mahan told Inside California Politics host Nikki Lorenzo on January 29. He also told Laurenzo that “I have never seen a candidate articulate with specificity what we need to do.”
Mahan said California voters can look to his accomplishments in San Jose as a blueprint, citing his accomplishments as lowering crime and homelessness rates and breaking through bureaucratic red tape to build new housing across the city.
“After 10 years of growth, the number of unsheltered homeless people has fallen by nearly a third, and last year we were rated America’s safest large city for the first time in more than 20 years,” Mahan said in a Jan. 29 X post. “We are the only city that has solved 100% of our homicides for almost four consecutive years. And we have worked with urgency and integrity on affordability, freeing thousands of housing units over the past several years.”
Mahan drew the ire of some progressives and housing advocates in San Jose when he got the City Council to approve a controversial plan that would give the city permission to arrest homeless people if they refuse to visit a shelter three times in an 18-month period. Mahan emphasized case-by-case evaluation and redefined outreach workers to use their discretion to decide when to escalate a refusal to evacuate.
In 2024, Mahan also targeted Newsom and some state Democrats when he supported Proposition 36. Prop. 36 would have allowed prosecutors to charge people convicted of a variety of third-time drug offenses and property crimes with so-called mandatory treatment felonies, giving offenders the option of behavioral health treatment or up to three years in jail or prison.
Voters overwhelmingly approved the measure.
Mahan said in a Jan. 29 social media post that California voters “need to stand up for our rights, our freedoms, and our neighbors.”
“We need to use the tools at hand to protect our democracy,” Mahan continued. “One tool is the law and the other tool is our results. We need to use both.”
