Elon Musk urged Americans to elect a Republican Congress in U.S. midterms elections
Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter, pushed voters to support Republicans in Congress during Tuesday’s midterm elections in order to defeat President Joe Biden’s Democrats, marking the first time a significant social media CEO specifically took a side. “Shared power curbs the worst excesses of both parties; therefore, I recommend voting for a Republican Congress, given that the Presidency is Democratic.” Musk wrote in a tweet to his more than 110 million followers on Monday.
The Republicans are most likely to win a majority in the House of Representatives in Tuesday’s elections, but impartial election experts have given the Senate a toss-up rating. Both houses are now led by Democrats. Musk, the richest man in the world and the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, acquired control of Twitter last month after a $44 billion deal. Since then, Musk has taken a number of drastic measures, including firing half of the staff, including the company’s top liaison, and developing a plan to make money off the blue check verification marks.
His authoritarian approach to free speech has prompted several organizations to issue warnings about the spread of false information and some advertisers to suspend their campaigns. Twitter suspended comic Kathy Griffin after a crackdown on accounts that mock Elon Musk. Musk then tweeted, “I’m open to the idea of voting Democrat again in the future,” adding that he had previously voted for Democrats as an independent.
Musk has frequently criticized the Biden administration and Democrats for their manifestos calling for the taxation of billionaires and their decision to increase tax breaks for union-made electric cars. The Tesla factories in the US are not unionized. Republicans could derail Biden’s agenda and begin probing into his family and administration using a majority in either house to their advantage.
According to Kyle Kondik of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, it is extremely unlikely that Musk’s comments will have an impact on the outcome of the election. Kondik said, “It’s hard to expect any sort of celebrity “endorsement,” as this basically is, to have much if any effect on voter behavior.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reacted to Musk’s comments by saying: “The President has often spoken about the importance of voting, and I’m just going to leave it there so as to not get involved in any kind of election conversation.”
Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich called Musk’s remarks “extremely encouraging.”