Texas, the state SpaceX calls home, voted Democratic up and down the ballot on Tuesday. For Vermilion Parish, the question is whether that makes Starbase Louisiana more important to Elon Musk.
What happened in Texas
Democrat Gina Hinojosa defeated Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, becoming the first Democrat to win the governor’s office in 36 years, Click2Houston and other Texas outlets reported. She takes office Jan. 19, 2027.
Democrat James Talarico, a 37-year-old state legislator and former middle school teacher, beat Republican Ken Paxton for a U.S. Senate seat, the Associated Press reported. He will be Texas’ first Democratic U.S. senator since 1993, and his win ended a 32-year Republican streak in statewide races, according to Houston Public Media.
Musk backed the losing side. He spent an estimated $474 million on Republican campaigns in this year’s midterms, nearly half of it in Texas, according to a New York Times estimate cited by Ars Technica.
The first move touches SpaceX
Two days after the election, at her first news conference as governor-elect, Hinojosa said that morning she had phoned the head of Texas Parks and Wildlife, the state’s park agency, herself. Her request: no action, during the transition, on state land near Boca Chica Beach, next to SpaceX’s Starbase launch site in Cameron County, Click2Houston reported.
The agency’s governing commission had a draft agenda that included talk of possibly giving up about 1,300 acres of public land there, according to earlier reporting by the Texas Tribune cited by Click2Houston. The item was dropped from the final agenda. The governor-elect didn’t say if the agency agreed, or what she plans once she takes office.
Musk’s first public reaction to the results, posted on X early Wednesday, was one line: “Data centers in space looking pretty appealing right now,” Ars Technica reported.
Where Louisiana comes in
Louisiana stayed Republican. Some industry watchers think that matters for Pecan Island. In an analysis piece, the technology site Ars Technica wrote that the Texas results “may accelerate Musk’s move to Louisiana.” In its view, south Louisiana was headed toward becoming SpaceX’s long-term home for flying hundreds or thousands of Starships a year anyway. The site also said that no one it spoke with expects SpaceX to move its headquarters out of Texas any time soon, though “it’s not impossible” Starbase Louisiana could become headquarters eventually.
That is analysis, not a company announcement. SpaceX has said nothing publicly about changing its plans for either state.
What the public record does show is that SpaceX is pressing ahead in Louisiana. On Nov. 6, after the election, the company posted two new Pecan Island environmental permitting jobs, bringing its Louisiana openings to nine, according to its job board. One of them, an air-permit engineer, will handle permits in both Texas and Louisiana and can be based at Starbase Louisiana. [Read more about those jobs.](/news/spacex-pecan-island-jobs-wetlands-air-permits/)
Starbase Louisiana’s approvals run through Louisiana and federal agencies, not Texas. That includes the parish’s tax agreement, which three residents and a citizens group are challenging in court, along with Army Corps wetland permits and FAA launch licenses. Construction is expected to begin in 2027.