Two chartered party buses and about a dozen cars pulled up outside Elon Musk's West Lake Hills, Texas, compound on Saturday, and roughly 60 people spent an hour dancing in the street to celebrate Election Night losses by the candidates Musk's money backed, according to the Austin American-Statesman.
The "People Over Billionaires Election After Party" came four days after Democrats won the House and began talking about investigating him.
The event was organized by VOCAL-TX, the Center for Popular Democracy and People's Action. Attendees boarded the blue Fly-Rides buses downtown, arrived around noon and, per the Statesman, followed a conga line to "Love Train" with speeches and two piñatas, one star-shaped and one shaped like a Tesla Cybertruck. Austin police said a caller reported alcohol use; officers saw no evidence of it, and it was unclear whether anyone was home. The organizers billed it as "family friendly, peaceful and FUN."
The party is the latest turn in a fight that has moved fast since Tuesday. Musk was the top donor of the midterm cycle, with more than $445 million to Republican candidates, PACs and outside groups, and most of the candidates he backed lost, NPR reported, including Ken Paxton's Senate campaign and Gov. Greg Abbott.
As we reported, Tesla and SpaceX tumbled as the blue wave hit Texas, and the state's incoming Democratic governor, Gina Hinojosa, has already asked the parks department to hold off on a sale of state land to SpaceX until she takes office.
Democrats in Congress are lining up behind her. Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-Va.) wants Musk to "answer for it under oath" over DOGE, and Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) says he would subpoena him with questions about Musk's links to Vladimir Putin, per NPR. Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.) has pointed to Musk restricting Ukraine's use of Starlink days after Trump eased Russia sanctions. Musk had already warned of what was coming, naming Bill Gates as an alleged funder of his critics, as we noted before the vote.
The pardon question is now part of it since Trump told Miranda Devine's "Pod Force One" podcast, in an interview published Nov. 2, that he would issue preemptive pardons for Musk and aides if Democrats pursue them: "I would if I needed to. Sure," then "I'd do it."
Hillary Clinton replied in remarks circulated Nov. 5 that a pardon would not shield him from Congress: "So let him pardon Elon, and then let's call him in and figure out what he has to say." Her reasoning: "You cannot take the Fifth Amendment because you have no jeopardy." Whether a pardon can reach criminal contempt of Congress is unsettled.
That is the background for the weekend's protest, and Fox News Digital's Asra Nomani investigated who is behind it. The three groups reported a combined $56.1 million in 2024 revenue, by her tally from their tax filings. The Center for Popular Democracy's return shows $40.9 million, nearly all of it, $38.2 million, contributions, and five executives paid between about $168,000 and $197,000. People's Action Institute reported $2.1 million, and VOCAL-NY, which is VOCAL-TX's fiscal sponsor, $13.1 million. They are separate entities, and the total is not a shared budget.
The same groups helped lead the "Tesla Takedown" protests of 2025, which a Fox News Digital investigation tied to 258 organizations with combined revenues of an estimated $2.6 billion. Those demonstrations were followed by vandalism at Tesla dealerships, Fox reports; Saturday's event, by every account, was peaceful.
The protesters' props carried the same branding. Two copies of the "I Am Stealing From You" poster of Musk, now a fixture at anti-Musk demonstrations, were at the Austin party, and the Progressive Change Institute has taken credit for commissioning the art from artist Absurdly Well. Its donation page sells the posters at $135 for five, $250 for ten and $30 for one, with a stated goal, per Nomani, of making Musk "a real liability for the administration." Signs in Austin read "Texas is not for sale" and "Alright Texas! Now let's tax Musk."
The groups did not respond to Fox News Digital's questions, and the Statesman quoted bus captain Eli Cortez, 28, who said the event was meant to celebrate voters rejecting billionaire influence. Musk, who said after the results came in that his "election-interfering space lasers" didn't work, per NPR, had not commented on the party when we checked. With the House changing hands in January, the probes, the subpoena threats and the pardon talk are all still ahead of him.