Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Inc., sent an email to his employees this Tuesday, urging them to cast their votes for a new district attorney in Austin, a person who would “actually prosecute crimes.” According to a recent news report by Bloomberg Bloomberg Law, Musk’s urgings come amid what he perceives to be an escalating crime wave in the US.
In a firm-wide email, Musk incited his staff that it was “high time for change throughout the world.” He was particularly pushing employees based in and around Tesla’s Austin headquarters to support Jeremy Sylestine. Musk endorsed Sylestine, whom he termed a moderate Democrat, in his bid to unseat the incumbent DA Jose Garza, also a Democrat.
The authenticity of Musk’s claims about the state of crime in the US set aside, his call to action constitutes an intriguing element of employee engagement at Tesla. It also attests to his willingness to engage in local politics wherever he sets up base, and speaks volumes about his views on the current state of the criminal justice system bordering on politics. What awaits to be seen is the influence Musk’s appeal will have on his Austin-based employees and what effect, if any, it will harbour on the local election.