Tesla CEO Elon Musk has moved his company and properties from California to Texas after he found himself in constant conflict with his political stance in California. The political conflict began with Musk and his open political views, which began making Tesla, the electric car business, begin to see a backlash from buyers. Musk himself, alongside the headquarters of his business, moved to Texas.
Musk’s focus on moving his businesses and properties to Texas was first reported in 2020. The pressure of changing locations first began when Musk was reportedly beginning to openly tweet things on social media. Specifically, his open support for the Trump campaign was the main source of people’s anger. When Musk began to publicly post some of his political opinions on social media, his buyers from California began growing suspicious of him and where he spent the money that he gained from his businesses.
Back in 2020, an overwhelming 45% or more of Californians were reported to be liberals and Democrats, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. In the same year, it was reported at least 39.5 million Hispanics were living in California, according to the NALEO educational fund. Both of these groups of people make up a high percentage of California’s population, and in 2020 both these groups of people began feeling threatened with new political policies and political ideas that were going on at the time. Once all these people who lived in California began seeing Musk’s stance, they began questioning him and his company.
It has been quite known for a while that the Democratic party has put a lot of effort into dealing with pollution and climate change, which led many Democrats in California to change from gas-powered vehicles to electrical-powered vehicles, believing it would decrease the amount of pollution being released into the air. Other Californians also saw it as an investment to save on gas money by switching to electrical powered vehicles, which greatly popularized the company, Tesla. Once Democrats began seeing Musk’s opposing ideas and massive support towards former President Donald Trump, many began calling for an instant boycott. Many Californians expressed outrage towards Musk and felt he had only produced the electric car of Tesla for profit rather than to help pollution.
After asking students whose families own Tesla cars their opinions on the situation, many claimed Musk’s political stance or opinion is irrelevant and should stay out of his work business. Delylah Zarate (12) said, “I think his personal opinion shouldn’t have affected his business the way it did.”
Another idea that contributed to the idea of moving Tesla to Texas was the global inflation that occurred during 2020. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, many places in California began experiencing money-related issues, which caused California to lift their minimum wage, as well as raise taxes to help with public care and to help people afford living expenses during the pandemic, or if they lost their home or job during the pandemic. Since the pandemic had raised money, many Californians also began leaving for different states, more specifically Texas, since people saw the cost of living there as affordable. Musk was also one of the many people who began moving to Texas due to the more profitable price of taxes and wages there.
