As governor, Mahan mentioned he would “struggle for our values whereas additionally fixing our issues.”
“I cannot be shy about standing as much as this administration for the sake of our individuals and our democracy,” he mentioned. “I additionally suppose it’s vital to do not forget that the perfect resistance is delivering outcomes.”
Mahan has been an underdog earlier than. He was a little-known metropolis council member lower than a 12 months into his first elected place when he launched a marketing campaign for mayor — ultimately upsetting Cindy Chavez, a county supervisor and native political heavyweight, within the 2022 basic election.
After an uneven first 12 months in workplace, when Mahan was bucked by a council majority on homeless spending and metropolis employee raises, he has gained the passage of successive metropolis budgets which have funded the buildout of an interim shelter system and added new penalties on individuals experiencing homelessness who refuse to come back indoors.
Final 12 months’s point-in-time homeless rely discovered a ten% drop in unsheltered homelessness in San José since Mahan took workplace.
For months, Mahan denied curiosity in a run for governor. He proposed that leaders of the state’s largest cities collaborate on a shared “Again to Fundamentals Agenda” that might function a coverage blueprint for the subsequent governor.
In December, he hosted a handful of gubernatorial candidates at an interim housing web site in South San José to tout town’s progress in creating tiny dwelling communities for individuals experiencing homelessness.
“I bought dwelling from a Valley Transit Authority assembly a number of weeks in the past, my spouse checked out me and mentioned, ‘I believe it is advisable to rethink leaping on this race,’” Mahan mentioned.
“She and I are each anxious concerning the route of the nation on the one hand — significantly what we’re seeing out of Minneapolis proper now — but additionally the problems we face regionally that we’re beginning to get traction on in San José however are going to require a distinct form of management and partnership from our state authorities,” he mentioned.
Mahan sailed to reelection in 2024 after San José voters moved the mayoral election to align with presidential election years. That change will permit Mahan to run for governor with out having to surrender his put up — after which probably run for an additional time period as mayor in 2028 if this marketing campaign is unsuccessful.
