- Election 2025
As Democrats spar in one of the most competitive races for governor in decades, one of their chief adversaries on the campaign trail is not on the ballot and holds no elected office.
Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and X, and one of President Donald Trump’s closest advisers, has become the newest target of the six Democrats vying to become our next chief executive. All of them have featured Musk in their campaign ads. One wants the state to stop investing pension funds in Tesla. Another wants to force Musk to get tested for drugs.
Ashley Koning, director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling at Rutgers University, said it’s a “no-brainer” that Democrats hoping to capitalize on their voters’ disdain of the Trump administration would single out Musk for attacks.
“His vehicles have become symbolic and intertwined with greed and oligarchy and his kind of powerful billionaire status, as opposed to the everyday person and the person who is struggling,” Koning said. “Democrats likely want to take advantage of that.”
Musk, the wealthiest person in the world,supported Democrats through 2020, but in 2022 pivoted to campaigning for the GOP and urged people to vote Republican in that year’s congressional races. He was a key donor for Trump’s last presidential campaign, and the president tapped him to slash federal spending as head of the new Department of Government Efficiency.
But Musk has taken a big hit recently. He poured $20 million into flipping a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court race and lost. His favorability hastanked. And sales of Tesla have nosedived. He said this week he wouldstep back from his work in D.C. in May.
Now, New Jersey Democrats are attacking Musk more than they attack their own rivals on the ballot.
“He’s the Democrats’ new boogeyman,” said Jeanette Hoffman, a Republican strategist. “The Democrats are looking to nationalize this election, but really, in the end in November, it’s going to come down to New Jersey issues.”
Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop last week called on the state to stop investing pension funds in Tesla, saying on X, the social media platform owned by Musk, that he“couldn’t believe that this step hasn’t been taken yet.”
“As Elon Musk threatens Medicaid, Social Security, school funding worth billions to our residents,” Fulop said, “there is zero reason to hold a direct position in Tesla.”
New Jersey held more than 1 million shares of Tesla in a pension fund valued at roughly $425 million in December 2024, which represented 1.72% of the fund’s total portfolio in January.
The campaign website for teachers union chief Sean Spiller has a section called “protect democracy” that warns people must “face the fact that the President and Elon Musk are doing everything and anything to make our lives harder.” In a recent television spot, Spiller referred to Musk as Trump’s “puppet master.”
Former state Sen. Steve Sweeney joined the chorus this week, rolling outa new television ad Tuesday branding Trump and Musk as “creeps.”
“When our daughter was born with Down syndrome, we had to fight to get the health care she deserves,” Sweeney says in the ad. “Now, Trump and Musk are threatening everything we care about, and too many Democrats are too weak to stop them.”
Anew adfrom Newark Mayor Ras Baraka released Wednesday features Musk’s raised-arm salute from the day of Trump’s second inauguration. The narrator of the spot says Baraka is the candidate “to make the wealthy pay their fair share, to stand up to Musk and Trump.”
The two members of Congress seeking the Democratic nomination for governor — Reps. Josh Gottheimer and Mikie Sherrill — have sponsored federal legislation targeting Musk. Sherrill called for investigations into Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency cuts and introduced abill that would require Musk — an admittedketamine user — to pass drug tests to maintain his special government employee status. Gottheimer supported a bill toblock Musk’s access to Americans’ private medical and financial data.
The two recently came under fire for accepting donations from Musk’s SpaceX corporate PAC. Sherrill donated $24,000 of those donations to a food bank, her campaign filings show, while Gottheimer told NJ Advance Media he gave the $2,500 he received to other Democrats so they could “beat Republicans.”
“For many Democrats, Musk is symbolic of Trump handing the reins over to this billionaire and all that DOGE has done thus far,” Koning said.
The Musk hatred is not on display in the Republican race for governor, where some of the five candidates have pledged to bring DOGE-style spending cuts to New Jersey. Last month, Bill Spadea, a former radio host, joined a rally in support of Musk near the Tesla dealership in Paramus.
“Lots of proud President Trump supporters there to make it known that we support the America First agenda! When I’m Governor, NJDOGE starts on Day 1,” Spadeasaid on Instagram.
The 2025 race for governor The New Jersey Monitoris providingextensive coverage of the race for our next governor. Youcan help uswitha donation to support robust local news.
Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our website. AP and Getty images may not be republished. Please see our republishing guidelines for use of any other photos and graphics.
