Blue States Look to Pull the Plug on Tesla

Since being announced as the leader of President Trump’s effort to eliminate waste and fraud in the federal bureaucracy, Elon Musk has been on the receiving end of countless attacks from congressional Democrats. Opponents of Musk and the Trump Administration at the state level are now joining these efforts.

Two state legislators from New York’s Capital Region, Sen. Pat Fahy and Assemblywoman Gabriella Romero, recently took this fight to a new level. Fahy and Romero recently introduced a bill that would end in-person sales operations for Tesla, the Elon Musk-owned car company, in the Empire State. Tesla currently is limited to five locations in New York State where it may sell cars directly to customers. Fahy, the Senate sponsor of this new anti-Tesla legislation, previously sponsored a bill that would have lifted the cap and allowed Tesla more direct-to-consumer sales locations.

While the Fahy-Romero proposal received the most press coverage, it isn’t the only Empire State effort aimed at hurting the business interests of President Trump’s government efficiency czar. In recent weeks, Democrats in the New York State Senate sent a letter to State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli requesting that he divest state pension funds from Tesla. State Assembly Democrats followed this with their own demand that DiNapoli end state pension fund investments in the Musk-owned car maker.

Not to be outdone by their colleagues in Albany, leading Democrats in New York City government have also jumped on the anti-Musk bandwagon. One candidate running for New York City Comptroller has made divestment of New York City pension funds from Tesla a key plank in his campaign. Brad Lander, the incumbent comptroller and a candidate for mayor of New York City, is talking about filing a shareholder lawsuit against Tesla. The Big Apple’s pension fund, which is managed by the city comptroller, has over $1 billion invested in Tesla.

Enemies of the Trump Administration beyond New York are also taking steps to put the screws to Musk and Tesla. Missouri Democrats are hoping to put an anti-Tesla initiative on the Show Me State’s ballot. The measure, like the bill recently proposed in New York, would end Tesla’s ability to sell cars directly to consumers and force the car maker to close its St. Louis and Kansas City locations. To make the ballot, the initiative needs the signatures of over 100,000 Missourians by May 2026.

While Musk and Tesla’s fiercest opponents now seem to come from the political Left, the Trump ally and his electric car company appear to have gained a considerable number of fans on the political Right. Back in New York, Assemblyman Jeff Gallahan and Senator Mark Walczyk introduced a bill in the state legislature to establish a Commission on Government Efficiency (COGE). This DOGE-inspired proposal would create a bipartisan state commission to uncover unnecessary spending in state government. The commission would then report its findings and request the state legislature eliminate the improper spending.

One of the Empire State’s most prominent conservative voices, Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt, recently introduced his own Musk-inspired bill. Ortt’s proposal would establish a bipartisan commission to tackle excessive and burdensome state regulations. The commission would report annually to New York’s elected state officials and provide recommendations on what state regulations it believes should be revised or eliminated.

There is little doubt that Elon Musk and his DOGE colleagues are having an impact on how the federal government will operate over the course of the Trump Administration. At the state level, the pro- and anti-Musk proposals aren’t likely to be the last America sees in its state capitals. While Musk’s focus since Trump’s inauguration has been on reforming the federal government, because of his enemies and fans in state legislatures around the country, Musk’s influence, in the years ahead, will likely be felt far beyond the Washington Beltway.