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Matt Mahan, the centrist Democrat and mayor of San Jose, announced on Thursday that he would run for governor of California, joining a sprawling but stagnant field to succeed Gavin Newsom<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mahan, 43, is a former tech entrepreneur who was first elected mayor of Silicon Valley\u2019s largest city in 2022.<\/p>\n He has touted<\/a> that his pragmatic approach has helped make San Jose the safest big city in the nation, and has led to a significant drop in homelessness, a chronic problem vexing many large California cities.<\/p>\n But the approach also had his critics. Mahan was one of the few prominent Democrats backing proposition 36<\/a>, a 2024 tough-on-crime ballot initiative that imposed harsher penalties for some drug and theft offenses.<\/p>\n Mahan has long been critical<\/a> of Newsom, who is term-limited and cannot run again, over the governor\u2019s approach to homelessness, crime reduction and even his social media taunting<\/a> of the president.<\/p>\n In a series of interviews on Thursday, Mahan suggested he saw an opening as a candidate focused less on the national politics dominated by Donald Trump<\/a> and more on the problems facing the state, including homelessness and the soaring cost of living.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a lot of candidates following a tired playbook,\u201d Mahan told Politico. \u201cThey\u2019re either running against Trump or they\u2019re running in his image. I\u2019m running for the future of California<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Mahan hasn\u2019t held statewide or federal office. But he has signaled an interest in running for governor for weeks. His entrance into the race, months before the June primary, reflects the unsettled nature of the field, which has so far failed to produce a frontrunner.<\/p>\n The Democrats running for governor include the former congresswoman Katie Porter, congressman Eric Swalwell, former health and human services secretary Xavier Becerra, former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer.<\/p>\n Welcoming Mahan to the race, Steyer said in a statement: \u201cCalifornia needs a governor who will stand up to powerful interests, not carry their water.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n