This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.
Why do so few California mayors become governor?
San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan was a relatively late entry into the governor’s race but was widely expected to shake things up. The business-friendly, centrist (for California) Democrat reduced street homelessness in his city and tapped into the state’s post-pandemic retreat from criminal justice reforms. Tech billionaires like Sergey Brin and Steven Huffman, and more conventional billionaires like Rick Caruso, gave lavishly to committees backing him.
He became the young, can-do “abundance” candidate from Silicon Valley. He was the potential unifying elixir for Democrats who just couldn’t muster much enthusiasm for Xavier Becerra (too blah), Tom Steyer (too rich) or Katie Porter (too Katie Porter).
So what happened? Maybe it was because Mahan waited too long to declare. Maybe it was because all the billionaire dollars alarmed voters. Maybe it was because California Democrats aren’t so centrist after all.
Or maybe it was because he’s a mayor.
California mayors have historically had a tough time advancing politically, a fact that on first blush seems counterintuitive. Mayors are public-sector chief executives with portfolios that include law enforcement, human services, housing, emergency response, economic development, traffic and a host of quality-of-life matters like tree-trimming and potholes. They manage budgets and payrolls. They are political brokers, bringing together labor unions and business, police and civil rights activists. They understand daily news coverage, political fundraising and coalition-building. They ought to be particularly appealing candidates for governor, a largely analogous position although on a larger scale.
But few mayors of California cities ever become governor. Their skills might be perfectly suited to the job, but those exact same skills, when exercised, may be precisely what makes voters wary of them.
When he was mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa spoke candidly of his gubernatorial prospects. Advancing would be tough, he said, because big-city mayors do things that have consequences. They make choices and compromises that play out on city streets — and in city budgets and labor contracts. As a result, they often disappoint supporters, enrage political enemies and inevitably burn bridges. It’s a trade-off for having meaningful executive power.
It’s easier for lawmakers, like members of Congress or the state Legislature. They carry bills and cast votes but are rarely held individually accountable for decisions that directly affect their constituents.
There are exceptions, of course. San Diego Mayor Pete Wilson was twice elected governor in the 1970s, and was then elected to the Senate.
But most exceptions come with asterisks. Sure, Gavin Newsom was mayor of San Francisco before becoming governor. But in between he served two terms as lieutenant governor, a sort of political purgatory that kept his name out of the headlines for eight years and helped burn away public memory of his personal scandals and mayoral controversies.
Before the detour, Newsom made his pitch to high-powered California Democrats at the 2008 convention in Denver. It was his mayoral prowess, he argued, that would make him the best governor. He cited his city’s universal health care program, living wage laws and environmental protections as models for the state.
“I promise you,” the young, brash mayor told the California delegation. “We have evidence. This is not an assertion, this is not another political speech. I will show you how it’s done. We have done it in San Francisco. It can be done anywhere.”
It was a gubernatorial preview of sorts, because it preceded his expected chief rival — Villaraigosa, the young, brash mayor of Los Angeles — making his own pitch, despite his realistic appraisal of mayors seeking to move up.
But both mayors were elbowed out of the 2010 gubernatorial race by Jerry Brown. Yes, Brown was the ex-mayor of Oakland. But he’s a special case, isn’t he? To non-Oaklanders his mayoral tenure seemed like a bit of a lark next to his two previous terms as governor and his time in two other statewide offices besides.
Ex-Mayor Newsom, as lieutenant governor, had a low-profile but official platform during the Brown years that may have hit the sweet spot between mayoral has-been and mayoral in-your-face, and he was elected governor in 2018, defeating ex-Mayor Villaraigosa.
Among California’s 40 governors, only four others have been mayors, if we include William Stephens, mayor of Los Angeles for 11 days in 1909. Gov. Hiram Johnson appointed Stephens to be lieutenant governor in 1916, but he became governor when Johnson moved to the U.S. Senate.
Washington Montgomery Bartlett was San Francisco mayor in the 1880s before being elected governor and serving less than a year. James “Sunny Jim” Rolph Jr. was mayor of San Francisco for almost 20 years beginning in 1912, before being elected governor in 1931.
Villaraigosa ran for a second time in 2026 but consistently polled near the bottom of the pack of major-league contenders, as did Mahan. Both men conceded defeat after polls closed Tuesday night.
For Mahan, perhaps this was an early test run and he will be back in four or eight years. But if he is, it will be with a longer record as mayor — inevitably with more decisions that divide voters.
What about mayors of other California cities? Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has said she has no further political aspirations and, besides, she is in a tough reelection fight and her political survival is by no means assured. San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria is a potential gubernatorial candidate, but he has stepped on a few toes in dealing with homelessness, as have Mahan and Bass. So has San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie. All four big-city Democratic mayors struggle to find their political lane as they try to appeal to both the home-owning pragmatic center and the rapidly advancing progressive left.
Candidates like Steyer and Becerra have to walk that line too, but they do it without the benefit and baggage of actual on-the-ground urban decision-making and the spotlight that comes with it.
Mayors of the next tier of California cities lack the statewide presence and, as a consequence, fundraising clout that could help elevate them to the next level.
It’s not just a California thing. New York mayors lead a city that has little in common with the rest of their state, and for many the city job is the more important and visible one. New York City voters rejected previously disgraced governor Andrew Cuomo when he ran for mayor.
South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg became a national celebrity, and secretary of Transportation. He is a past and potential presidential candidate. But as a liberal Democrat he has a vanishingly small chance of ever being elected governor of conservative Indiana.
Big city mayors will likely keep trying to be elected governor, because they have the right experience for the job. And they may keep falling short, because the right background for serving well as governor may also be the wrong experience for being elected.
