Matt Mahan wins San Jose mayoral race after Cindy Chavez concedes

SAN JOSE, Calif., - San Jose City Councilmember Matt Mahan is set to become the next mayor of San Jose after Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez conceded that she lost the election on Wednesday.

"I'm excited. It has been kind of a blur," Mahan said.

Mahan was leading Chavez with 51.3% of the vote to 48.7%. There were 240,521 total votes cast in the race, according to county elections data. On Wednesday, Chavez called Mahan to congratulate him on the election. 

"I have called Matt Mahan to wish him the best of luck in his two-year term as mayor. San Jose faces numerous challenges in the months and years ahead, requiring that we all work collaboratively with the entire City Council to reach meaningful and equitable solutions," Chavez said in a statement. 

Mahan is a relative newcomer to politics, having been first elected to San Jose city council in 2020. Chavez and Mahan are both Democrats and had highlighted similar issues such as homelessness and housing as priorities to address in San Jose.

"One of the things I ran on was the idea of greater focus, setting public goals, posting them on the city website, measuring our performance and tying our pay raises to progress."

He will replace Sam Liccardo who was unable to run for re-election due to term limits. Liccardo had endorsed Mahan in the contest against Chavez.

"We were all bound by the common goal of bringing new leadership to city hall with the capacity and experience to achieve results and restore a sense of hope and ambition of the city we can create together," Chavez said. 

Mahan elaborated. 

"I really think if we’re going to rebuild trust in the public sector, which has eroded at all levels of government – we’re going to have to be much more transparent and focused and show people the policies we’re implementing and the programs we’re funding are actually moving the needle on things like homelessness and crime."