YIMBY Movement Split on California Governor Endorsement

Across political parties, the leading candidates in California’s crowded gubernatorial race have put solving the state’s housing crisis at the center of their campaigns.

As the issue has risen in importance, so has an endorsement from the YIMBYs (short for yes, in my backyard). Over the last decade, the pro-housing coalition has become a dominant political force throughout California, helping to knock down barriers to development and ushering in a new reign of state and local politicians. Yet, the YIMBYs at-large were unable to get behind a single candidate ahead of the June 2 primary, showing that despite the movement’s monolithic messaging that more housing is good housing, it is divided on who can best achieve it.

YIMBY Action, the movement’s grassroots organizing arm, endorsed Tom Steyer, the billionaire and environmental advocate. Steyer has pledged to build 1 million homes in four years by using state resources to free up capital and developable land. However, Steyer’s progressive politics have given pause to some in the development community.

California YIMBY, a separate statewide organization that focuses on passing pro-housing legislation, endorsed candidates in 70 other state races but chose not to endorse a single candidate for governor. Instead, the group said Steyer and the other three leading Democratic candidates — Xavier Becerra, Katie Porter and Matt Mahan — “claim solid YIMBY bonafides.”

“Life isn’t just about housing,” Brian Hanlon, CA YIMBY’s founder and executive director, wrote in his non-endorsement announcement, urging YIMBYs to choose the candidate who best aligns with their other priorities. It’s a strangely broad-minded sentiment from a group that has pushed the housing shortage as an urgent crisis and hub for many of society’s ills.

The YIMBY movement formed in the crucible of the Bay Area’s housing crisis more than 10 years ago, and has since spread into different missions. Today, the term YIMBY is less of a single coalition and identity, and more of a broad set of beliefs about housing production, CA YIMBY’s Matthew Lewis said.

The YIMBY ideology’s big tent reflects how the housing crisis has blurred traditional political lines. The movement has attracted everyone from the socialists who view housing as a human right to more conservative-minded developers who abhor the costs and restrictions of government overregulation.

“We’re a very heterogeneous group,” Lewis said. “There are very different politics within the overall cohort, regardless of the organization.”

Although they share the acronym, YIMBY Action, CA YIMBY and YIMBY Law — the movement’s legal arm that refrains from endorsements — are individual statewide organizations. Beneath that triumvirate, YIMBY Action has helped stand up 22 local chapters to focus on regional politics in California, from Santa Cruz YIMBY down to the YIMBY Democrats of San Diego.

YIMBY Action endorsed Steyer after leaders from its local chapters made a recommendation, which was then voted on by the organization’s roughly 1,900 members. It was among the tightest endorsement votes YIMBY Action has held, Executive Director Laura Foote told The Real Deal.

“The endorsement will be quite high-impact,” Foote said. “For many people, housing is the number one issue on their list, and we’re telling them that the most pro-housing candidate is Tom Steyer, and they will be moved by that.”

Despite the endorsement, many YIMBYs were uncomfortable with Steyer’s opposition to greenfield development, Foote said. Steyer views it as harmful to the environment, while others in the pro-housing faction see it as a critical variable in solving the housing shortage.

Developers, a meaningful subset of the YIMBY movement, also pushed back against the Steyer endorsement. While Steyer is a billionaire, he comes off as “too left-wing” for some developers, Foote said.

“[Becerra, Mahan and Porter] are all passable, and they’d be decent governors on housing, a solid B+,” Foote told TRD. “But Steyer is an A-. He’s sort of proven that he’s willing to stick his neck out a little further.”

Instead of a single endorsement, CA YIMBY described what it liked and didn’t like about candidates. The organization likes Steyer’s million-home pledge and his early support of SB 79 — which goes into effect in July and automatically upzones land along major transit stops in the state’s largest population centers. However, Steyer’s support for the prohibition of investor-owned housing made CA YIMBY concerned that he was vulnerable to “populist politics” that get caught up in symbolic gestures rather than effective measures.

Becerra, the former state attorney general and member of President Joe Biden’s cabinet, scored points for his willingness to punish local governments who are out of compliance with the state’s housing goals, but his support for down payment assistance programs and proposal to freeze home insurance rates were “hard to square with market reality,” according to CA YIMBY’s endorsement announcement.

On Porter, a former congressmember from Orange County, CA YIMBY noted her policy expertise, as well as her “bold truth-telling” in opposing prevailing wage requirements, an increasingly significant cost that strangles new housing development. However, the organization is similarly concerned that Porter’s “economic populist platform” could harm the state’s fiscal position. She has supported raising corporate taxes and eliminating income taxes for Californians making under $100,000 per year.

Mahan, mayor of San Jose, has regularly touted his city’s move to slash development fees, which he said allowed 2,000 new housing units to break ground in 2025 after San Jose saw zero home starts in 2024. CA YIMBY zeroed in on this as “the kind of concrete impact California’s housing politics has been starved of.” The organization also liked Mahan’s focus on the “government-imposed” costs of homebuilding, as tens of thousands of permitted new homes have stalled statewide because they don’t pencil. Yet, San Jose remains behind on its state-mandated housing goals with Mahan in the executive seat.

CA YIMBY sees the primary gubernatorial ballot and the YIMBY movement’s spread of support as a positive.

“In a worse situation, there’d be only one pro-housing candidate and you’d see all the YIMBYs coalesce around the good candidate,” Lewis told TRD.

Foote said the different approaches by YIMBY Action and CA YIMBY help strengthen the overall effect.

“I’m comfortable with having two organizations that can play these different roles,” Foote said. “We have the polished state capitol insider not wanting to ruffle too many feathers and the rougher grassroots organizers more willing to push the envelope.”