Politics
Tech leaders funding Matt Mahan’s campaign for California governor say it’s not about tech
San José Mayor Matt Mahan’s run for California governor has been defined from the start by his donor list.
Mahan entered the race late and with little statewide name recognition, but catapulted into contention thanks to massive funding from billionaire tech titans, venture capitalists, cryptocurrency investors and other Silicon Valley elites. In a state with more than 23 million voters and hugely expensive media markets, the money signaled Mahan would be a contender.
It also spurred accusations from his more liberal Democratic competitors and powerful labor leaders that Mahan is beholden to Big Tech, including forces aligned with President Trump.
California Labor Federation President Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher recently described Mahan as “funded by Trump’s big tech billionaires,” while fellow Democratic candidate Tom Steyer — a billionaire running against corporate interests — called him “MAGA Matt Mahan.”
That framing has persisted, despite Mahan being a centrist Democrat who has publicly criticized Trump.
On Thursday, Mahan released a four-page “Plan to Hold Big Tech Accountable and Ensure AI Works for All Californians.” The proposal called for AI and data centers to pay for their power and water needs, fund workforce stability initiatives and ensure human oversight of AI tools in critical sectors such as healthcare. It also called for the state to use AI to become more efficient, to bar cellphones in schools and to require parental consent for kids 15 and under joining social media.
In an interview with The Times, Mahan, 43, said AI is “one of the most significant trends in society” and needs to be addressed.
He also rejected the notion that he would do Big Tech’s bidding, and the idea that his support from tech leaders is entirely or even largely premised on his plans for their industry.
“I’ve spoken very little about tech with any of my donors,” he said.
Mahan said his fundraising has instead been “centered on how we get California on a better path in terms of building housing, improving the quality of our public schools, solving our biggest problems,” which “just resonates with people in the tech industry.”
A ‘digital native’
Mahan, the son of a teacher and a mailman, grew up in the farming community of Watsonville but commuted to San José to attend high school at Bellarmine College Prep on scholarship as a low-income student. He went on to Harvard University, where he was student body president and classmates with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, spent a year in Bolivia building irrigation systems, and then taught for two years in Alum Rock as part of the Teach for America program.
He then joined Causes, an early Facebook application that allowed nonprofits to build grassroots support online, and rose to become chief executive. In 2014, he co-founded Brigade, a nonpartisan platform where voters could advocate for issues, which was acquired in 2019. He won a San José City Council seat in 2020, and was elected mayor in 2022.
An early mayoral profile described Mahan as painting a whiteboard behind his desk to “write on the wall as I did in my tech days.” Another noted he used ChatGPT to write speeches. A third recounted how he’d used AI to make city buses run faster.
Mahan said he learned as a startup leader and a classroom teacher that metrics matter — that “when we take our precious tax dollars and invest them in public services, we should measure our performance.”
He said he has always believed government should take the best tech has to offer while being vigilant about the risks it poses, which maybe comes naturally to him as a millennial who remembers “the world before the internet” but is also something of a “digital native.”
Donors explain
Between Jan. 1 and April 18, Mahan’s campaign raised nearly $13.5 million, according to state campaign finance filings. During the same period, an independent expenditure backing Mahan called Back to Basics raised about $22.7 million, while another launched by the group Deliver for California raised nearly $3.3 million.
The donors are a who’s who of tech leaders, venture capitalists and other leaders in the gig, gaming, digital media and AI defense fields.
Sergey Brin, the co-founder of Google, gave the maximum individual contribution of $39,200 to Mahan directly, and $1 million to the Deliver for California committee. Reed Hastings, the co-founder and chairman of Netflix, gave the maximum contribution to Mahan, plus $1 million to the Back to Basics committee.
Some donors, such as LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, who gave the maximum to Mahan, are well-known supporters of progressive causes. Others, such as Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale and crypto founder David Marcus, who maxed out to Mahan, are also Trump backers.
Brin, a friend of Gov. Gavin Newsom since the Democrat was mayor of San Francisco, has been moving rightward recently. He has donated to the Republican National Committee and in March was appointed to the White House tech advisory council. He’s also a major donor to the nonprofit opposing the ballot measure for a new tax on California billionaires — which Mahan also is against.
Brin, Lonsdale and Marcus did not respond to a request for comment. Hastings and Hoffman declined to comment.
Several other tech donors did speak with The Times — and universally described their support for Mahan as less to do with his tech policies, and more to do with issues important to all Californians.
Jamie Siminoff, who sold his home security startup Ring to Amazon for $1 billion and gave the maximum donation to Mahan, said he thinks L.A., where he lives, is the “greatest city in the world” and California is the “best state in the world.” But he sees Mahan as someone who could make improvements by bringing the state toward the political middle on public safety, housing and homelessness.
“He’s just like a nice, pragmatic, sort of centrist person, from what I can see, [who] wants to make California better, and I’m 100% behind that.”
Siminoff said it doesn’t hurt that Mahan speaks the same language as many tech leaders, who are mostly just “pragmatic inventors and entrepreneurs” who want California’s leader to be “principled in thinking about fixing things.”
Ruchi Sanghvi, the first female engineer at Facebook and a former Dropbox executive who state records show donated $25,000 to Mahan, said she has known Mahan since he was leading Causes but fell out of touch. When he entered the governor’s race, and she “got all these emails from people that I respect” saying they were supporting him, she asked for a meeting.
At that meeting, she said, Mahan “really dug in on some of the core issues that I care about,” including housing, homelessness and education.
The San Francisco resident, political independent and mother of three said the idea that tech leaders are backing Mahan because they believe he will scratch their back in business is wrong. Referring to his tech plan’s restrictions on social media for youth, she said, “I don’t think of that as scratching my back.”
Instead, “what really resonates with me and my peers is that, yes, he is pragmatic,” Sanghvi said. “He cares about measurable outcomes, which I think is very critical.”
Marc Merrill, co-founder, co-chairman and chief product officer of L.A.-based video game developer and e-sports company Riot Games, gave the maximum to Mahan, as did his wife, Ashley, founder of the sleepwear brand Lunya. In a statement to The Times, Merrill said he and his wife are lifelong Californians who love the state and support Mahan because of his record “addressing California’s most pressing challenges with practical, results-oriented solutions” in San José.
Merrill said Mahan brought down violent crime, reduced homelessness with “data-driven programs that address root causes rather than just managing the problem,” and “fostered an environment where businesses are choosing to invest and grow in the city.”
Tech vs. labor?
Gonzalez Fletcher said tech leaders have long “been very clear about their desire to support candidates who won’t regulate AI, to support candidates who will go after organized labor” — and their support for Mahan is no different.
She pointed as an example to a March event attended by Mahan and hosted by one of his most vocal backers: Garry Tan, a venture capitalist and chief executive of Y Combinator, a startup incubator in San Francisco.
At the event — which was part of Tan’s launch of a new statewide group called Garry’s List, which he has described as a “Rotary Club for radical centrism” — Chris Larsen, the co-founder of the cryptocurrency network Ripple, railed against the influence of unions in California politics and the “weak” response from business leaders, according to video.
“We’ve got to fight on par with the unions when they’re proposing stupid, job-killing ideas like the San Francisco CEO tax,” Larsen said. He noted that several other candidates for governor, including former Orange County Rep. Katie Porter, whom he’d donated to, had backed the measure to tax companies that pay their chief executive 100 times more than their average employee.
Neither Tan nor Larsen responded to a request for comment.
Gonzalez Fletcher, a former state legislator, said the argument that California Democrats have caused the state’s biggest problems by bowing to unions is false, and that what is more true is that “ruling class” Democrats such as Newsom “acquiesce to business interests” driving the state’s affordability and homelessness crises.
She said employers get away with underpaying workers and big landlords are allowed to take advantage of renters. She said Airbnb, as a tech example, has gone unchecked despite causing “a lot of the removal of housing stock.”
She said one reason she opposes Mahan is that he “suffers from the same love affair with Big Tech” as Newsom.
Steyer — who has funded his own campaign to the tune of nearly $200 million — has repeatedly struck a similar note.
Earlier this month, his campaign wrote that “Mahan continues to fail working Californians by catering to tech billionaires and wealthy special interest groups.” In February, it wrote that although Mahan had the support of “powerful special interests hellbent on keeping California a playground for the rich,” Steyer had the backing of “bus drivers, cafeteria workers, and custodians.”
Airbnb declined to comment but in the past has denied claims its platform substantially contributes to housing affordability issues, and has donated to housing initiatives. Airbnb co-founder Nathan Blecharczyk, a Mahan donor, did not respond to a request for comment.
Mahan said he values unions, in part because he grew up in a union household and benefited from the high-quality healthcare that provided, included when he was hospitalized for a collapsed lung as a teenager.
He said he has also worked with tech employers who “are inventing the future, quite literally,” and “creating a lot of jobs and opportunity.”
Mahan said the idea the two are inherently at odds is false, because “business needs labor, and labor needs business,” and the real question is “how to balance everyone’s needs.”
“If we don’t have a strong enough regulatory environment, and business has too much power, workers can be exploited, the environment can be exploited and we can see really negative social outcomes,” he said. “But the flip side is also true. If labor in our politics has too much power, you can also see distortions, you can see investment flow elsewhere, you can see less housing get built.”
Mahan said that “neither side has a monopoly on the truth,” and that government has to “bring people together and strike the right balance.”
He also defended Airbnb, which in San José pays taxes just like hotels, he said.
“We don’t see Airbnb as an antagonistic thing. We don’t let them take over the market, we regulate them, we charge them, and we use their tax revenue to provide services to people.”
He said the state’s housing crisis is due to over-regulation slowing new building to the point where it cannot keep up with job growth — which he called “fundamentally unsustainable and unfair” to low-income folks pushed out of job centers as a result.
The answer is building more homes, more quickly, he said, including by reducing building fees and streamlining permitting processes — which he said he has done in San José and would replicate statewide as governor.
“I am, first and foremost, focused on making government deliver results that make a real difference in people’s lives,” he said. “That’s my North Star.”
Politics
Major appeals court declares New Jersey AR-15 ban unconstitutional in landmark Second Amendment ruling
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A federal appeals court on Friday struck down New Jersey’s ban on semiautomatic rifles and magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds, prompting the National Rifle Association (NRA) to call the decision a “historic victory” in a case the gun-rights organization has litigated since 2018.
In a sweeping en banc ruling, the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held that New Jersey’s assault-firearm and large-capacity magazine restrictions violate the Second Amendment.
The court expanded a lower court’s ruling by declaring the state’s so-called “assault-firearm” ban unconstitutional as it applied to the full class of semiautomatic rifles, not just the AR-15, and also struck down New Jersey’s ban on semiautomatic rifles and its restrictions on magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds.
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The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia held that New Jersey’s assault-firearm and large-capacity magazine restrictions violate the Second Amendment. (Getty Images, File)
“This is an NRA case that we’ve been litigating since 2018, so it’s a monumental win,” Justin Davis, managing director of public affairs for the National Rifle Association, told Fox News Digital.
The NRA celebrated the decision in a statement, calling it a major victory for gun owners nationwide.
“Today marks a historic victory for the NRA, the Second Amendment, and law-abiding Americans,” the organization said.
INSIDE TRUMP’S UNPRECEDENTED BATTLE PLAN TO EXPAND SECOND AMENDMENT RIGHTS THROUGH JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
A male buyer signs paperwork beside an AR-15 rifle with a scope in a gun shop, verifying the purchase in compliance with state regulations. (Svetlana Day via Getty Images, File)
“The Third Circuit has struck down these unconstitutional so-called assault weapons bans and magazine bans in New Jersey, affirming what we’ve always known: the right to keep and bear arms, including commonly-owned rifles and standard-capacity magazines, is fundamental and cannot be infringed by politicians who prioritize control over constitutional freedoms.”
“This ruling protects the rights of millions of responsible gun owners in the Garden State and serves as another benchmark in our efforts to dismantle gun control across the country.”
Writing for the majority, U.S. Circuit Judge Arianna Freeman, a Biden appointee, said the Supreme Court’s Second Amendment decisions in District of Columbia v. Heller, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen and subsequent cases require governments to show modern firearm restrictions are consistent with America’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.
Applying that framework, the court concluded New Jersey failed to meet that burden.
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The NRA celebrated the decision in a statement, calling it a major victory for gun owners nationwide.
The majority held that New Jersey’s ban on semiautomatic rifles violates the Second Amendment and reversed the district court’s decision upholding the state’s ban on magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds.
The opinion said New Jersey enacted its “assault-firearms law” in 1990, following a California elementary school shooting.
According to the court, the governor at the time described the banned firearms as “guns capable of wholesale destruction” that were “designed to wipe out the greatest number of people in the shortest possible time.”
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The majority concluded that semiautomatic rifles and magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds are protected by the Second Amendment and that New Jersey failed to demonstrate the restrictions are consistent with America’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.
Several judges dissented, arguing the banned firearms are unusually dangerous military-style weapons that states have long had authority to regulate and that the decision conflicts with every other federal appeals court to uphold similar state restrictions.
WASHINGTON — President Trump and his allies escalated attacks on U.S. elections on Friday, after the president’s prime-time effort to convince Americans that the nation’s voting systems are fundamentally flawed, and threatened to punish California and other Democratic states that refuse the administration’s demands for voter data.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin threatened local election officials with fines and prison if they don’t turn over voter rolls to federal officials seeking to root out purported illegal voting by noncitizens.
“Try us,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote on X in response to Mullin’s threats. He added that “California has free, fair, and secure elections” and that the state “will fight for them.”
The administration’s threats — made less than four months before the November midterm elections — are a continuation of an aggressive Trump-led campaign to use the federal government to attempt to overhaul the nation’s voting systems and sow public mistrust in elections.
The administration has tried for months to compel Democratic-led states into handing over sensitive voter data to the federal government, but the efforts have run into resistance in courts, in part out of concern for privacy laws. The courts have also reaffirmed in many cases that the Constitution gives states — not the federal government — primary authority over elections.
On Friday, Mullin said his agency has found “as many as” 190,832 possible noncitizens registered to vote in California, along with more in three other Democratic-led states. He said Homeland Security arrived at those numbers by checking the four states’ public voter records.
He vowed to withhold federal election security grants from states until they agree to the administration’s demands, including having their voter registration lists “scrubbed” and their election security systems updated.
“If these states want a grant and they want to be reimbursed to run federal elections, they are going to have to implement security [measures],” Mullin said at a news conference. “We need to make sure that individuals who are legally able to vote are voting.”
Newsom’s office said the state had “no idea” where that claim came from. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) questioned the Department of Homeland Security’s methods and said the administration’s allegations were “built on sham numbers that no one should trust.”
“DHS’s lack of transparency also raises serious questions about whether it violated state law to obtain California’s voter registration records and federal privacy law and court rulings barring misuse of federal databases,” Padilla said in a statement.
The administration has not made its methodology public, and the system Mullin’s department has used to check for noncitizens in the past has inaccurately flagged some citizens as noncitizens. Past election reviews have found noncitizen voting is rare.
“There is plenty of reason to be suspicious of the claims from the administration,” said Brendan Fischer, director of strategic investigations at the Campaign Legal Center, “and every reason for voters to have confidence in our elections.”
Mullin’s remarks came the day after Trump delivered a prime-time address about vulnerabilities in the election system, claims that largely were not backed up by the evidence he provided. The White House released a trove of declassified documents that failed to show that any American election had been affected by fraud or foreign interference.
The White House dug in on the strategy Friday morning, deploying agency heads to continue amplifying the idea of election vulnerabilities, even after fact-checks showed most of his claims were exaggerated and had been previously known, investigated or debunked.
“SAVE OUR ELECTIONS,” the White House said on X.
Trump also used his address to pressure Congress to pass legislation that would tighten voting restrictions and could make it harder for millions to register to vote and cast ballots. While hard-line Republicans applauded him, others in the party have rebuffed his request.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said Friday that he did not understand why Trump is focusing on a past election when Republicans should focus on what is ahead.
“I think historically the midterms for the party in power are really tough,” Cornyn said. “So, yeah, I am concerned about it. We ought to be talking about things looking forward that our constituents are most concerned about.”
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said the nation’s electoral systems are safe, and while he thinks election officials need to be “vigilant,” he said he is more concerned about economic issues ahead of the midterms.
Discussing the legislation ahead of the speech Thursday, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said it would be “impossible” to carry out changes to the nation’s voting laws in time for the midterms.
“The only thing that will occur is an undermining of the integrity of our elections right now,” Tillis said on the Senate floor.
David Becker, the executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, called Mullin’s threats “laughable.”
“There is no significant pool of federal grant money appropriated, so this threat has no teeth for any state. None of them are expecting any significant federal funds for elections,” Becker said.
Mullin told reporters Friday the federal government plans to use public records requests to try to obtain the voter roll information in order to investigate whether noncitizens have voted. Any member of the public can make a public records request; the move signals that the government has few remaining avenues to force the state to turn over voter data.
But Mullin appeared to acknowledge the limitations, saying: “I obviously can’t force the states.” He later threatened to levy fines, penalties or criminal charges against elections officials in states that don’t comply with the government’s demand.
More than a dozen courts have ruled against the Justice Department’s highly unusual demand for state voter rolls. The federal government is not entitled to the data under federal law, Becker said.
He said previous government investigations into noncitizen voting have found that most people flagged against Homeland Security’s database were either citizens or non-citizens who had never registered themselves to vote.
The Trump administration has used a database from an immigration verification system to flag possible noncitizen voters, but election officials have found that method misidentified some voters. Even with citizens mistakenly included in the count, the number of possible ineligible voters was extremely low — in Texas, 0.0001% of voters.
Data indicate that voting by noncitizens is rare. A study of the 2016 election by the Brennan Center for Justice found that officials referred about 30 cases of suspected noncitizen voting for investigation or prosecution. A 2024 review by the American Immigration Council of the right-wing Heritage Foundation‘s database turned up 68 cases of noncitizen voting since the 1980s.
While Trump’s speech prompted warnings from his critics that he could be laying the groundwork to take further steps to interfere with or tighten restrictions on elections, experts said he was running out of moves.
Becker predicted that Trump would not actually attempt to cancel elections or send officers to the polls and that courts would block the president if he declared a national emergency to exert control over elections.
“But I think there are people in the administration, including the president himself, who would like us all to think this is possible,” he said.
Fischer said Trump may be trying to lay the groundwork to dispute the midterm results if he doesn’t like the outcome, but said his powers to do so are limited.
“There’s safeguards and laws in place to protect the freedom to vote,” Fischer said, “and voters should tune out the noise and continue to participate in our democracy.”
Trump will not sign housing bill without voter ID, criticizes Senate
President Donald Trump took to Truth Social, declaring he will not sign the housing bill despite congressional approval. He protests the Senate’s inability to pass The SAVE America Act, which he claims is supported by 97% of Republicans and many Democrats. Trump emphasizes the need for photo voter ID and proof of citizenship to prevent voter fraud.
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After a popular Italian restaurant chain dished out an online response to a curious diner about its new unlimited pasta pass, politically-minded social media users, including those at the top of the food chain, are taking a stand.
Olive Garden took to X on Wednesday to promote its new deal, which offers customers the chance purchase a “Never Ending Pasta Pass” for $100 plus tax, giving the first 10,000 people to purchase their pass 13 weeks of unlimited pasta.
A user posed a question to the iconic American restaurant chain, asking whether they could purchase the unlimited pasta pass and share it with their family.
An Olive Garden sign is affixed atop one of its locations. (iStock)
WATCH: ELISSA SLOTKIN SAYS SAVE AMERICA ACT WOULD MAKE IT ‘HARD FOR ANY DEMOCRAT’ TO WIN AN ELECTION
“No. The Never-Ending Pasta Pass is only for use by the Passholder whose name is printed on the Pass,” Olive Garden replied. “Passes are personalized and non-transferable.”
“Passholders must present a valid photo I.D. along with the Pass at the time of ordering,” the chain instructed from its X account.
Immediately, the political right seized the the opportunity to prove a point — that Olive Garden appears more strict about its unlimited pasta promotion than Democrat-run states are about voting. The timely post comes as Trump continues to push for what would be a signature legislative victory — the SAVE Act — which, if passed, would require photo identification to vote. It has faced fierce pushback from the left-wing, who have argued against requiring proof of identity to cast a ballot in elections.
“Olive Garden takes their Pasta Pass security more seriously than Democrats take election security,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told Fox News Digital. “It’s sad but true.”
“The SAVE America Act is a commonsense police, supported by the vast majority of Americans, that will secure our elections for generations to come. The only people opposed seem to be Democrats in Congress… I wonder why?” she added.
People with signs supporting the SAVE act at Upper Senate Park. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
WATCH: MCCARTHY SAYS TRUMP WILL USE ‘EVERYTHING HE CAN’ TO FORCE SENATE ACTION ON SAVE AMERICA ACT
The social media post quickly caused an online feeding frenzy.
“PUT OLIVE GARDEN IN CHARGE OF OUR ELECTIONS!!!” one popular X account quipped.
“I hope you understand that this is extremely discriminatory towards minorities and married women,” one user said, parroting talking points that the political left has used in opposition of the SAVE Act.
MEMPHIS PIZZA JOINT SPARKS BACKLASH AFTER OWNER REFUSES TO SERVE NATIONAL GUARD TROOPS
US President Donald Trump addresses the nation from the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC on July 16, 2026. SAUL LOEB/Pool via REUTERS
Another user also mockingly used the common parlance of the political left in response to Olive Garden’s strict policy.
“I’m sorry, but this sounds incredibly racist to me, a requirement ID and some sort of proof of being a passholder will negatively affect marginalized communities ability to access Olive Garden,” wrote the sarcastic user. “Do better Olive Garden.”
“Are you saying that if photo ID is not presented, it could lead to cheating the system?” another social media user asked.
“Good grief, Olive Garden is more secure than our elections,” said yet another.
Adding protein, fat, or fiber to carbs—like topping pasta with chicken, spinach, and olive oil—helps slow digestion and prevent blood sugar spikes. (iStock)
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Since Republicans in the House of Representatives passed the SAVE Act in February, the bill has faced major obstruction by Democrats in the Senate, as the conservative lawmakers don’t have the 60 votes required to overcome a filibuster.
Earlier this week, SAVE Act language was attached to a State Department appropriations bill in a creative attempt to pass the law.
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