South Bay

Ro Khanna is backing a federal billionaire wealth tax that would hit Silicon Valley harder than anywhere else on earth — and the backlash is sharp. Meanwhile, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan is making the case for a different kind of politics: his fee cuts turned zero market-rate home starts in 2024 into 2,000 in 2025, and he's now running for governor on a platform of fixing California's $150 billion spending binge before asking taxpayers for more. South Bay is the epicenter of the tension between the luxury-belief class and the builder class — and 2026 is shaping up as the fight that decides which one wins.