How Silicon Valley’s dream California governor candidate dramatically backfired

Silicon Valley’s attempt to propel Matt Mahan into the California governor’s office is unraveling into a costly political lesson for the tech elite who believed a business-minded outsider could quickly reshape the state.

What began as an ambitious effort to install a centrist Democrat with deep ties to the tech world has instead exposed fractures between wealthy donors, political strategists, and corporate leaders who never fully united behind the first term San Jose mayor, Politico reported.

Mahan entered the race with significant hype.

The 43-year-old mayor built his profile as a former Teach for America instructor turned tech entrepreneur who later rose through Silicon Valley’s startup ecosystem.

Before becoming mayor of San Jose, he worked at Causes, an early Facebook-connected nonprofit fundraising platform that eventually grew to nearly 190 million users.

He later co-founded Brigade Media, a civic engagement company backed by prominent investors including Sean Parker, Ron Conway and Marc Benioff.

His Silicon Valley pedigree stretched back even further.

While studying at Harvard University, Mahan was encouraged to pursue civic technology instead of law school by a friend who had been roommates with Mark Zuckerberg.

Supporters believed that background made him the ideal candidate to bridge California’s political establishment and the innovation culture of the tech industry. Venture capitalists, executives and billionaire donors lined up behind him, seeing an opportunity to elevate a pragmatic, business-friendly Democrat into statewide office.

Now, with less than two weeks to the primaries, the campaign seems to have never gained meaningful traction with voters.

“He raised the worst-of-all-worlds kind of money. Enough that he ran a real campaign, but not enough to get the … name ID that he needs,” one anonymous campaign supporter told Politico.

An early May Emerson College survey placed Mahan in sixth place, with just 8% support.

He trailed Democrats including Katie Porter, Tom Steyer and Xavier Becerra. He also lagged behind Republicans Chad Bianco and Steve Hilton in some polls despite positioning himself as a centrist alternative.

Behind the scenes, frustrations mounted as the campaign struggled to convert money and endorsements into momentum.

The principal independent expenditure committee supporting Mahan reportedly estimated it would require roughly $46 million to mount a competitive statewide operation.

Donors ultimately delivered only about half that amount, leaving strategists unable to fully introduce Mahan to California voters before ballots approached.

Much of the blame centered on Silicon Valley’s approach to political fundraising.

Rather than committing overwhelming resources early, many wealthy donors treated the campaign like a startup investment — offering limited “seed funding” while waiting to see whether polling numbers improved before investing more.

“Every billionaire has an opinion and often a donor adviser. It’s the problem of dealing with people who have been unbelievably successful in one space, therefore thinking they have totally figured out another world that is totally different,” the same supporter said.

Another source familiar with the fundraising push described hesitation throughout the business community.

“There was some criticism of the donor class — ‘here’s seed funding, let’s see how you do’ — politics doesn’t work like that. You need to be strong out of the gate. That created hesitation in the business community, which hedged their bets.”

That reluctance created a damaging cycle: Mahan needed major spending to boost recognition, but donors refused to dramatically escalate spending until they saw evidence he could win.

Major corporations never fully rallied around him either.

While companies such as DoorDash and Instacart backed the campaign financially, other tech giants stayed on the sidelines. Meta, Uber and Airbnb reportedly withheld major support until Becerra emerged as the race frontrunner.

Some donors later expressed regret over the lack of unity.

“We complain all the time about how the state is poorly run. Then, when we got the guy, we left him out to dry,” an anonymous tech executive donor said.

Mahan still attracted several prominent backers, including venture capitalist Garry Tan, investor Michael Moritz, Google co-founder Sergey Brin and Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings.

Brin contributed $1 million to a pro-Mahan super PAC in addition to the maximum legal direct donation. Hastings later attempted a last-minute $1 million infusion after earlier contributions, but the money was ultimately returned when additional donors failed to join a final fundraising push.

Meanwhile, a secondary super PAC supporting Mahan shut down operations entirely on May 16, underscoring the campaign’s deteriorating financial picture.

Mahan spokesperson Tasha Dean defended the campaign’s strategy amid criticism.

“The clickbait class and our opponents have spent more time talking about poll numbers than plans to fix our problems.”

“We chose something different: listening to Californians, seeing the daily challenges they face, and talking about how we will hold government accountable for delivering results… The people in this movement are not part of the political establishment and special interest insiders — and we’re certainly not going to let pollsters decide this election.”

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