Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she wants to get rid of her Tesla just weeks after a Twitter dustup with Elon Musk in which the billionaire CEO playfully teased the “Squad” member to “stop hitting on me.”
The Green New Deal-backing progressive congresswoman from the Bronx and Queens told Bloomberg News that she’s itching to switch to an electric car that is manufactured by a company that employs union members.
The Democrat told Bloomberg News on Wednesday that she purchased her Tesla Model 3 back in 2020 in order to make it easier to travel between her local district and Washington, DC.
“At the time, it was the only EV that could get me from New York to Washington on like one, or one-and-a-half charges,” she said. “I would love to switch.”
The only battery-powered vehicles that are made domestically by unionized workers are the Chevrolet Bolt, the Bolt EUV, and the Ford F-150 Lightning pickup truck.
Tesla stock gained 5% in trading on Wall Street as of 1 p.m. Wednesday. Shares of Tesla have fallen in recent weeks due to ongoing concerns about production slowdowns in COVID-hit China.
Last month, Musk responded to an AOC tweet about “some billionaire with an ego problem” by joking: “Stop hitting on me, I’m really shy.”
“I was talking about Zuckerberg but ok,” AOC shot back at Musk before deleting the response about a minute later.
AOC recently got engaged to her longtime boyfriend, Riley Roberts.
Musk has alienated liberals and Democrats in recent weeks after he declared that he would purchase Twitter in order to reverse some of the site’s content moderation policies.
The Tesla CEO, whose net worth has dropped below $200 billion, has said he would reinstate Donald Trump’s Twitter account if his $44 billion acquisition of the San Francisco-based social media company is completed.
Musk has also voiced criticisms of the Democratic Party, which he branded a faction of “hate and division,” and stated his intent to vote for GOP candidates in this year’s midterm elections as well as the 2024 contests.
Musk’s pending acquisition of Twitter, which has been put “on hold” due to concerns over the purported prevalence of spam and bot accounts, has energized Republicans and conservatives.
His embrace of Republicans has prompted at least one GOP lawmaker to declare his love of Tesla electric cars.
Thomas Massie, the Republican congressman from Kentucky, told Bloomberg News that he owns a Model S. He also said Tesla is the only stock he owns.
“This is not a car company, it’s a battery company,” Massie said. “The car is just their first killer app.”
Top Democrats like Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona and Reps Adam Schiff of California, David Cicilline of Rhode Island, Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware and Tom Malinowski of New Jersey all own Teslas.