Billionaire Elon Musk backed a shadowy political effort to oust Travis County District Attorney José Garza in the Democratic primary, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Garza fended off a challenge from former county prosecutor Jeremy Sylestine this past spring. Sylestine garnered the support of top-dollar Republican donors during his campaign, and, the WSJ reports, one of his loudest backers was a political action committee supported by the Tesla CEO.
The PAC, then known as Saving Austin, flooded Austin with attack ads claiming Garza was responsible for Austin's streets being filled with "pedophiles and killers." The PAC was not registered with the state's ethics commission, so its backers weren't immediately identifiable at the time. The Journal combed through Federal Election Commission records and found Saving Austin, now known as Saving Texas, is connected to Musk's pro-Trump PAC. The reporters also found three staffers for the group previously worked for Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.
The Democratic primary became more or less a proxy war for Republicans in Travis County to unseat Garza. Sylestine drastically out-fundraised the incumbent, with much of his financial support coming from "hardcore Republicans." Saving Austin's ads prompted Garza to issue a cease-and-desist letter, arguing the PAC didn't properly disclose its financial backing under state law.
Sylestine told KUT ahead of the primary he didn't support the messaging and he didn't know who was behind the ads, which cost more than $650,000 according to the Journal.
In an interview Friday, Garza said the effort by Musk was a bellwether for future political races in Austin – and left-leaning cities like Austin across the country.
"We've likely not seen the last of Elon Musk and his billionaire buddies," he said. "I think it is part of a changing Austin, and I think all of us are just going to have to continue to work hard to reach voters to make sure that our community knows what's happening. I think if we do those things, Austin is going to continue to be Austin.”
Garza was first elected in 2020, campaigning on a platform to prosecute police misconduct and sexual assault cases more vehemently than his predecessor, who he upset in that year's Democratic primary. Since then, his office has largely struggled to make good on his promise to prosecute high-profile misconduct cases. Last year, he failed to convince a jury an Austin police officer murdered Mike Ramos in 2020. His office also dropped assault charges against nearly 20 officers who were accused of misconduct during racial justice protests in 2020.
Garza faces a legal challenge to remove him from office. That case was brought under the state's so-called rogue prosecutor law, which allows residents to sue to remove a local district or county attorney.
He faces Republican challenger Daniel Betts on Election Day.
