Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's (R) ties to Elon Musk show what happens when Republicans control every lever of state power, a legal analyst warned.
Lawyer and journalist Katie Phang made the case in a Thursday video for her YouTube channel while interviewing Gina Hinojosa, the Democratic state representative challenging Abbott in November.
Phang pointed to what she called "a very suspicious, almost, I'd say, scratching of the back happening between Abbott and Elon Musk," citing state grants and tax breaks that have flowed to the billionaire's companies. She said Starlink received $110 million upfront from the Texas Broadband Office and that SpaceX landed a tax break shortly after Musk gave half a million dollars to Abbott's reelection campaign.
The arrangement, Phang argued, is the product of one-party rule.
"Texas state politics has been what I call a power trifecta," she said. "Just like on the national level in D.C., just like in my home state of Florida, your state house, your state senate, and your governor's mansion, all run by the GOP, all run by Republicans. And so if the state of affairs in the state of play is woefully, sadly miserable, there's only one party to blame, and that's the Republicans."
She added, "There is no daylight between Greg Abbott and the billionaires," and asked Hinojosa why she "thought it was important to expose this type of backscratching."
Hinojosa has sent the governor's office a public records request for Abbott's communications with Musk. She said a state broadband contract was rewritten to Musk's benefit just before awards went out. According to Hinojosa, the head of the broadband office told lawmakers at a hearing this summer that the terms changed "because the governor's office made a phone call and told us to change it."
"Before that, Elon Musk was given the keys to the castle," Hinojosa said, referring to Musk's authority to close a public beach.