First posted on Instagram · @profilopolitics
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has warned that Texas’s newly elected Democratic attorney general will go after Elon Musk, telling a press conference in Tallahassee the day after the November 3 midterm elections: “They’re going to go after Elon Musk. I guarantee you they will do that.”
DeSantis tied the warning directly to Musk’s businesses in Texas, where Tesla’s Gigafactory sits outside Austin and SpaceX operates its Starbase launch facility in South Texas. “Having the Gigafactory and all that there, I think it’s going to be problematic for him because I think the political hostility is very, very strong,” he said. He called the Texas result “a massive sea change” and warned that the Republican Party “cannot be viable nationally without Texas.”
The man DeSantis was talking about is Nathan Johnson, a Democratic state senator from Dallas who defeated Republican Mayes Middleton for the open attorney general’s seat, becoming the first Democrat elected Texas attorney general since 1994. Johnson made Musk’s companies a campaign issue months before the election: in July he released an anti-corruption plan whose lead example was Musk’s satellite internet company, saying roughly $110 million in state broadband grants to Starlink deserved scrutiny after testimony at a June 24 state Senate hearing that Starlink received 99 percent of the grant awards with a bid nearly triple the cost of a competing one.
Johnson has since confirmed he intends to investigate. He told NBC News in an interview on Wednesday that “Elon has demonstrated his disregard for the public interest,” adding: “He’s demonstrated his interest in pay-to-play. He’s demonstrated interest in exerting control over public power through his own wealth and his own commercial interests.” Johnson, who called Musk a “cruel, arrogant, ignorant” person, said he plans to examine whether SpaceX unfairly benefited from a state grant program for rural broadband, adding: “If he runs afoul of the law, he can expect that we’re going to have an interaction.”
The warning comes as Musk faces a wave of scrutiny after spending nearly $474 million backing Republican candidates in the midterms, only to see Democrats sweep Congress and take Texas. Incoming Texas Governor Gina Hinojosa, who defeated Governor Greg Abbott, filed a lawsuit last month seeking emails between Musk and Abbott and has questioned $1.7 billion in state property tax breaks for Musk’s companies. In Washington, incoming House Oversight chair Robert Garcia has said the committee will investigate Musk’s role in the Department of Government Efficiency.
Other Republicans have predicted voters will come to regret the Democratic wins. Arkansas Governor Sarah Sanders said on Fox News’ Hannity on November 7 that Texas voters will experience “buyer’s remorse” under Democratic leadership, and legal scholar Jonathan Turley told the same programme on November 5 that buyer’s remorse would sweep America as Democrats turn to impeachment and investigations instead of passing legislation. Democrats also held their ground in Georgia, where a Democratic incumbent kept his Senate seat.