Texas State Representative Tan Parker recently said that Elon Musk should “absolutely” consider moving Twitter from California to the Lone Star State, as he did with Tesla.
“Elon made a tremendous decision, the right choice, when he brought Tesla to Texas, when he brought SpaceX to Texas. I think it’s no different in his decision making here for Twitter, he realizes that Texas is the most business friendly state in America, that we are open for business,” the Republican lawmaker told Fox Business after Musk recently reached a deal with Twitter to buy the platform for $44 billion.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott similarly suggested in a tweet last week that Musk should bring Twitter to Texas “to join Tesla, SpaceX & the Boring company.”
Musk, who is the richest man in the world, moved Tesla’s headquarters to Texas last year amid a fight with the California governor over Covid-19 restrictions. California State Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez tweeted, “F*** Elon Musk” in 2020, Fox Business reported.
Musk said of the decision at the time that it is “tough for people to afford houses” in Freemont, Calif., and that there is a “limit to how big you can scale it in the Bay Area.”
Parker noted that after Musk brought Tesla and SpaceX to Texas, he believes it’s a “very good probability that he will bring the headquarters of Twitter,” adding that lawmakers will “obviously encourage that.”
“We’ll support it and we’ll roll out the red carpet to make certain that he does so,” he said. “But he knows living here firsthand the difference that Texas brings to the table.”
Parker added: “We are a low tax state. We have no state income tax. Pretty extraordinary environment. Look at California by comparison. Obviously tremendous state income tax and they’re taxed so heavily, obviously at the local level, particularly in the Bay Area.”
Musk has said that he wants to make Twitter “better than ever.”
“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” Musk said in a statement on the deal. “I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans.”
Musk wrote in a recent SEC filing that he had invested in Twitter because he believes in its “potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy.”
“Twitter has extraordinary potential,” he added. “I will unlock it.”