Hinojosa sues Abbott for Musk records, seeks delay on SpaceX park deal
Texas Democrats plan to increase state oversight of Elon Musk’s companies after recent election victories, incoming officeholders said. Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa, who defeated incumbent Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, has sued the departing governor to obtain communications between his office and Musk, and she has asked to delay state discussions about a land deal involving SpaceX at Boca Chica State Park until after she takes office.
Musk has made a $225 million bet on Texas, according to The Wall Street Journal. Musk-run companies have flourished in the state through tax incentives, infrastructure benefits and legislation that makes it difficult to sue them — support that has come mainly from Republican elected officials. That is about to change, Democrats said.
The stakes are substantial. Austin is home to Tesla’s largest U.S. electric-vehicle factory and, the company hopes, a future site of mass humanoid robot production. SpaceX’s manufacturing and launch footprint spans much of South and Central Texas, and Musk plans to build Terafab, a multibillion-dollar semiconductor manufacturing project.
“His projects are being approved in a way that other projects have not been,” said Democratic state Rep. Mary González, whose district includes parts of El Paso. “We need to make sure rules are being followed.”
Plans to sell public parks to SpaceX have drawn criticism from Democrats and even some Republicans. In September, a federal judge approved a Trump administration decision to transfer about 700 acres of land in a federal wildlife refuge to SpaceX, despite opposition from conservation groups.
At her first news conference as governor-elect on Thursday, Hinojosa said she had asked to delay the state’s discussions about another land deal, at Boca Chica State Park near the border of Mexico, until after she took office. She campaigned on slowing down data-center development and on her opposition to certain land deals involving the world’s richest man.
The governor also influences permitting. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, a state regulatory agency, approves large projects like those proposed by Tesla and SpaceX, and Hinojosa will soon be able to appoint commissioners who can act as more of a check on corporate power.
The expansion plans have drawn resistance outside the Capitol, especially in rural areas where residents say the projects threaten the landscape. In Grimes County, where SpaceX and Tesla plan to build a 100-million-square-foot facility, residents showed up to the county commission meeting in June to argue that the development could ruin their quiet quality of life.
Musk has been relatively restrained in his response to the election results, writing on X that “data centers in space looking pretty appealing right now.” SpaceX and Tesla did not respond to requests for comment.
His campaign contributions made him a target of many voters. Musk donated about $160 million to a Republican super PAC in support of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s U.S. Senate run, but Paxton ultimately lost to James Talarico. The Democrat accused the billionaire of trying to “buy his own personal U.S. Senator.”
“I think very big money has gotten a rubber stamp in Texas for a long time,” said Sarah Eckhardt, the newly elected Democratic comptroller of Texas. Eckhardt previously dealt with Musk’s projects as a county official in Austin and later as a state senator. She said his companies have brought needed economic development to the state, including good-paying career opportunities for people without college degrees. But as Musk committed to more development in Texas, she said, he demonstrated “a lack of civic empathy.”
In her view, Musk has leveraged his money to pressure small county governments to move quickly on massive projects with few resources to negotiate the terms. Eckhardt said she wants the state to step in more often if counties want that.
Incoming Democrats said they want to continue Texas’ growth and business-friendly nature — just without the rubber stamp for Musk. That may even mean incentives for his competition. “I think the environment is going to change into a productive partnership,” Eckhardt said. “It’s a level playing field. If Amazon and Starlink are competing, they will compete; we will not put our thumb on the scales for one or the other,” she said of the satellite internet service operated by SpaceX.
Musk’s shift to Texas began in 2020, after he grew fed up with California’s political climate and regulations. “If a team has been winning for too long, they do tend to get a little complacent, a little entitled, then they don’t win the championship anymore,” Musk told The Wall Street Journal at the time. State leaders rewarded the move: Texas has fewer zoning laws and environmental and labor requirements, vast swaths of loosely regulated land and — unlike California — no corporate income tax or capital-gains taxes on individuals.
Musk’s critics say Texas has gone above and beyond for him, pointing to rewritten laws and a new business court designed to make the state friendlier to controlling shareholders such as Musk — and, they say, a practice by Abbott’s office of accommodating requests from Musk’s companies to censor public records with information about their business despite the state’s open records laws. “I think people are tired of feeling like they’re second class, because there are people who are able and willing to throw around so much money that they get whatever they want,” said Democratic state Rep. Gene Wu, whose district includes parts of Houston. Wu said his constituents are done with “the ultrarich continuing to get handouts.” “If he doesn’t want to pay taxes,” Wu added, “that’s too bad because we need public schools and we need roads and we need hospitals.”