Elon Musk didn’t vote in the midterms despite telling followers to back Republicans, records show

Election records in Cameron County, Texas, show no record of the Twitter CEO voting in November’s midterms

Elon Musk failed to cast a ballot in November’s midterms after pledging he would vote Republican and urging his 120 million-strong army of Twitter followers to do so, according to election records.

Mr Musk, who is registered to vote in Cameron County, Texas, where his SpaceX firm has a launch facility at Boca Chica, has become an enthusiastic Republican booster since his $44bn acquisition of Twitter first began in April.

The billionaire declared in May he would be backing a Republican candidate for the first time after claiming the Democrats had become “the party of division and hate”.

“I can no longer support them and will vote Republican. Now, watch their dirty tricks campaign against me unfold,” he said at the time.

Later that month, he claimed to have voted for Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, but said he was switching affiliation due to “unprovoked attacks by leading Democrats.”

“I intend to vote Republican in November,” he reiterated.

In June, he celebrated Republican Congressional candidate Mayra Flores’s victory in a special election in Texas’s 34th district while predicting a “massive red wave in 2022.”

To independent-minded voters:

Shared power curbs the worst excesses of both parties, therefore I recommend voting for a Republican Congress, given that the Presidency is Democratic.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 7, 2022

Then a day before the midterms on 7 November, the billionaire tweeted: “To independent-minded voters: Shared power curbs the worst excesses of both parties, therefore I recommend voting for a Republican Congress, given that the Presidency is Democratic.”

However, it appears Mr Musk neglected to follow his own advice.

In a statement to The Independent, the Cameron County elections administrator said: “Based on his Voting History Record, we do not have any evidence that Mr. Musk voted in the November 2022 midterm election in Cameron County.”

TWITTER-MUSK-AP EXPLICA (AP)

The Daily Beast was first to report on Mr Musk’s midterm no-show.

Voting results published by Cameron County election officials also showed no record that Mr Musk had voted.

Joshua Benton, founder of Harvard University’s Nieman Lab, noted that Mr Musk did not turn up on a public spreadsheet of names who had voted early or by mail.

Mr Benton also pointed out on Twitter that the Tesla CEO appeared to have left Cameron County on his private jet the day before the midterms.

The @elonjet Twitter account that tracked the location of Mr Musk’s jet using publicly available data was mysteriously suspended on Wednesday.

Ms Flores was defeated in her November midterm election, and blamed low turnout among Republican and Independent voters.

“The RED WAVE did not happen,” Ms Flores wrote on election night. “Republicans and Independents stayed home. DO NOT COMPLAIN ABOUT THE RESULTS IF YOU DID NOT DO YOUR PART!”