Meet the Candidates for Governor: Mayor Matt Mahan

The race for Governor of California is only getting more and more exciting! This year will be filled with many more surprises to come, so stay up-to-date by attending Manny's series of town halls with each candidate, moderated by Politico Reporter Dustin Gardiner.

Next up is San José Mayor Matt Mahan, focused on accountability, housing growth, public safety, homelessness reduction, and fiscal responsibility.

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Matt Mahan

After helping to set California’s third largest city on the path to recovery through a Back to Basics agenda, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan is now running for Governor of California to bring the same laser focus on accountability and results to state government.

Under Mahan’s leadership, San Jose has become the safest big city in America. It has built more safe and decent interim housing for homeless residents than any city in California and has lowered the rate of unsheltered homelessness by nearly 30 percent by requiring people to come indoors when shelter is available. San Jose is speeding up approval times for new homes and apartments, and slashing fees to spark a surge of new housing permits while working to make it much easier and affordable to convert downtown office buildings into housing.

Mahan, the son of a letter carrier and school teacher, understands from his own life just what it means for a family to make paychecks last to the end of the month. That’s one of the reasons why he has focused San Jose city government on clear and measurable accountability, and on making sure that government lives within its means. He strongly believes that before any government asks us to pay more in taxes, making our lives even less affordable, they should do a much better job with the resources they have now.

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Dustin Gardiner

A reporter at Politico that has covered state and national politics from California, Arizona and D.C. for 16 years.

He previously covered state politics for the San Francisco Chronicle, including from Washington where he tracked California's congressional delegation during President Donald Trump's first impeachment. Prior to moving to California, he spent a decade with The Arizona Republic, where he covered state and city politics.

Dustin’s awards include first place honors in both the newsletter category and for daily Capitol beat coverage from the Sacramento Press Club in 2024 and 2023, and the “story of the year” award from the Arizona Newspapers Association in 2017.

Dustin lives in San Francisco and is a member of NLGJA, the association of LGBTQ journalists.

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