The Real Reason AOC Wants To Ditch Her Tesla

Democrat Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — routinely referred to as AOC — is one of the most famous house representatives on social media. Her vocal attitude toward the rights of the economically deprived strata of the society and her massive social media presence were among the reasons that helped her become the youngest member of the U.S. Congress in 2018. Her influence on social media also means she is often publicly disrespected by Republican supporters, including Twitter's prospective owner, Elon Musk, who recently suggested that he switched sides to oppose Democrats' politics of "division & hate."

Elon Musk recently also ran a poll on Twitter, asking people who they trust less between politicians and billionaires like himself. In a tweet shortly following this poll, Musk dared Rep. Ocasio-Cortez to run the same poll on social media. While one would think this was a jab at the outspoken Congresswoman for her socialistic and reformist views, some of Musk's followers suggested it could be for another reason: it may be a vindictive response to AOC saying she "would love to switch" from her Tesla to another electric vehicle.

In a recent interview with Bloomberg News, AOC said she purchased a Tesla in 2020 to make her travels between her local district — which includes parts of Bronx, Queens, and Riker Islands in the New York City — and Washington DC more efficient. She remarked, "at the time, it was the only EV" that would allow her to commute between New York and Washington in just "one or one-and-a-half charges."

She also said in the interview that she wanted to migrate to an EV made by a domestic company that had a union of workers. Her options include the Chevrolet Bolt, Bolt EUV, Chevy Silverado, or the Ford F-150 Lightning truck.

Tesla does not have an operating union of workers, and Elon Musk bragged with confidence time and again that workers don't want a union either. In March 2022, Musk also openly challenged the United Autoworkers (UAW) to hold a vote about whether they wished to have a trade union at Tesla. Musk also claimed that Tesla workers are among the highest-paid in the auto industry while sharing a video clip of Mary Barra, the current CEO of General Motors, responding to a journalist Andrew Sorkin's question about non-unionized Tesla workers making more money than peers at unionized GM. Barra responded by saying the automakers' conglomerate also gives workers more benefits.

While AOC is seen as a proponent of unions, Musk has vehemently opposed them. Despite Musk's open challenges to form a union, Tesla has been reported to threaten employees who want to start a union. In 2019, it came under fire for firing an employee who was allegedly involved in unionizing workers. In March 2021, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) reiterated its former ruling from September 2019, in which it had said that the Freemont plant employee Richard Ortiz was fired illegally. The NLRB also asked Tesla to reverse the termination and compensate Ortiz with a fair wage and damages made due to wrongful termination.

As per Tesla, Ortiz was fired for sharing screenshots of employees' profiles from an internal Tesla HR management system on Facebook. In its ruling, the NLRB also found that Tesla had wrongfully warned another employee — Jose Moran — for sharing screenshots with Ortiz and recognized these as efforts to bust unions. Ortiz was reportedly involved in organizing a union and was apparently seen distributing fliers.

In addition to slamming Tesla, the NLRB also asked it to amend another clause in every employee's confidentiality agreement. The said clause prevented employees from talking to the press without proper authorization, even if the information was already available in the public domain.

Given the popularity of Ocasio-Cortez and Musk on Twitter, it won't be surprising to learn that this isn't the first time the two have traded jabs. On April 29, 2022, Ocasio-Cortez tweeted, "Tired of having to collectively stress about what explosion of hate crimes is happening bc some billionaire with an ego problem unilaterally controls a massive communication platform and skews it because Tucker Carlson or Peter Thiel took him dinner and made him feel special."

With the news of his Twitter acquisition still fresh and making the rounds at that point, Musk shot back with, "Stop hitting on me, I'm really shy." Ocasio-Cortez originally replied by saying, "I was talking about Zuckerberg, but ok," though she eventually deleted that tweet. She later shared a screenshot of the whole exchange in a new tweet, simply saying, "Like I said, ego problems."

So, AOC and Musk were already going head-to-head before this exchange about politicians, billionaires, and possible Tesla regrets. Considering that Ocasio-Cortez and Musk are both outspoken individuals who aren't afraid of sharing their opinions — or directly calling out those who oppose them — this probably won't be the last time we see the two take shots at one another on social media.