Elon Musk, who has been known to enforce a strict work culture and ask employees to
take on long shifts, encouraged Tesla staff in Austin to make time for their civic duty yesterday. The Tesla CEO particularly wanted them to vote for Jeremy Sylestine, the moderate challenger to Travis County’s progressive district attorney José Garza.
Musk emailed employees telling them to cast their ballots for a new DA who will “actually prosecute crimes” and that it was “high time for change throughout the world,”
Bloomberg reports.
Garza, who ended up winning with almost 67 percent of the vote, was unphased by Musk’s push for his opponent. Garza said in a text to Bloomberg, “I’ll let my opponent take the endorsement from the man who made Twitter an even more hateful, toxic stew.” As election day approached, billionaires besides Musk
donated to Sylestine’s reelection campaign, and Garza’s team called out his opponent’s funders as “national Republicans.”
Garza’s wide-margin win came as yet another blowout similar to his 2020 win in a primary runoff. Back then, he defeated incumbent Margaret Moore by 36 points after campaigning on
police accountability, ending low-level drug prosecutions and
bail reform. During Garza’s tenure, the number of inmates booked into Travis County jail
has increased and he
dropped charges against 17 Austin police officers for 2020 protests.