Elon Musk leaning toward DeSantis in 2024, casts first Republican vote for Mayra Flores in Texas

Elon Musk signaled on Twitter he is leaning toward voting for Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the upcoming 2024 presidential election, and also revealed he voted Republican for the first time ever in the special election for the Texas 34th Congressional District.

The Tesla CEO casted his ballot for Mayra Flores, the first Mexican-born woman to serve in the House and predicted a red wave in 2022. 

“I voted for Mayra Flores—first time I ever voted Republican. Massive red wave in 2022,” Musk said in a Twitter exchange on Wednesday morning. 

I voted for Mayra Flores – first time I ever voted Republican.

Massive red wave in 2022.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 15, 2022

Flores won the special election with nearly 51% of the vote, defeating her Democrat counterpart by seven percentage points. Her victory will be the first time the district will seat a Republican in Congress in 10 years. 

The election was held to determine who would fill the seat after Democratic Representative Filemon Vela Jr. resigned earlier this year. Flores will hold the seat until the end of this year, until a permanent representative for the district is elected in November’s mid-term elections. 

When the Tesla and SpaceX CEO was asked whom he was "leaning towards" for the upcoming 2024 election by a Silicon Valley Tesla owners club on Twitter, he responded "DeSantis." He added that the final choice was to be determined, “TBD.” 

"DeSantis has a better chance of winning," posted Musk despite having previously said he supported Andrew Yang in the presidential election. 

At a conference last month, Musk said he would vote Republican in an upcoming election, describing himself as a “moderate, neither Republican nor Democrat.”

"I have voted overwhelmingly for Democrats, historically. Like I'm not sure, I might never have voted for a Republican, just to be clear," he continued.

"Now this election I will," he added.