MAGA millionaire tech bros get a brutal Texas reality check after fleeing California’s liberals – only to see Democrats sweep the state
Gung-ho MAGA venture capitalists who moved to Texas to escape liberal politics in tech hubs like California are expressing regret after the 2026 midterm elections turned the Lone Star state blue.
‘Ugh, I moved here to get away from the left lunacy,’ wrote tech investor and Launch co-founder Jason Calacanis on X.
Texas was among the biggest shocks of election night for President Donald Trump and his Republican allies. Governor Greg Abbott conceded to Gina Hinojosa, who became the first Democrat elected to the office since 1990.
In another upset, James Talarico defeated Republican Ken Paxton, becoming the first Democrat elected to the Senate from Texas since 1988.
Calacanis, who moved from California to Texas in 2024, was quick to distance himself from the results as prediction markets reacted to the election.
‘Don’t blame me,’ he wrote, saying he had voted straight Republican and had not ‘ruined’ Texas like other Californians who had moved to the Lone Star State.
The election has posed challenges for the wider technology industry, particularly over the future of data centers, which have become a flashpoint in communities across Texas.
Talarico has called for data center companies to pay for their own energy, recycle water and obtain community consent, arguing that they should not drive up utility bills or take advantage of local communities.
With James Talarico winning the Senate race and Gina Hinojosa taking the governor’s office, MAGA-aligned venture capitalists who relocated to Texas after Covid to escape Democratic-led states are now facing the prospect of a very different political landscape in the state they chose as their conservative haven
Texas was among the biggest shocks of midterm election night for President Donald Trump and his allies
Calacanis pushed back, insisting the industry already does more than meet those demands.
‘Data centers create jobs, pay taxes and donate to various community efforts,’ he wrote, adding that towns lucky enough to attract a data center should ‘extract as much money from them’ as possible for local schools and playgrounds.
Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, who moved from San Francisco to Austin in 2020, also weighed in, reposting a lengthy screed on X.com attacking Republicans for failing to hold their majorities in Congress.
‘At some point, incompetence becomes so breathtaking that you begin wondering whether anybody in Republican leadership has ever successfully managed anything more complicated than ordering lunch,’ read the post.
It described the election as an ‘electoral f***ing earthquake,’ citing Talarico’s victory, Abdul El-Sayed’s win in Michigan and Susan Collins’s loss in Maine.
‘Warning signs were flashing everywhere, and these arrogant, complacent jacka**** behaved like victory was something they were entitled to receive in the mail,’ it added.
Elon Musk, who spent almost half a billion dollars on the midterm elections and moved his home and key operations of Tesla, SpaceX and X to Texas beginning in 2020, also reacted online.
‘Data centers in space looking pretty appealing right now,’ he wrote on X.com on November 4.
Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, who moved from San Francisco to Austin in 2020, also weighed in, reposting a lengthy X post criticizing Republicans for losing their majorities in Congress
Elon Musk, who spent nearly half a billion dollars backing candidates in the midterms, moved his home to Texas in 2020 before shifting key operations of Tesla, SpaceX and X to the state
Shortly afterward, he added: ‘Guess my election-interfering space lasers didn’t work this time.’
Musk had campaigned against Talarico, who defeated Paxton in the Senate race by 55 percent to 43 percent, according to the Associated Press.
He had also claimed Talarico wanted to turn children transgender, but the Democrat went on to win the seat.
Musk, who led the Department of Government Efficiency under Trump in 2025, has previously said he feared Democrats could put him in jail if they regained power.
The political fallout was also playing out on Wall Street. Shares of Musk’s electric car company, Tesla, are down 15 percent in two days – knocking about $39.4 billion off his fortune.
Meanwhile, SpaceX is down more than 12 percent since the election, for a shocking $113 billion in losses. Taken together, Musk has suffered $152 billion in paper losses since the election.
Christian Garrett, a partner at 127 Ventures with connections to Peter Thiel and Alex Karp, struck a more defiant tone, writing on X that it was ‘time to get to work’ while praising the West and the technology sector.
The results also came as voters expressed concerns about the industry’s growing influence.
Exit polls found that 57 percent of voters believed AI would do more harm than good for society, compared with 24 percent who said it would do more good than harm, according to an ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll conducted using Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel.
Republican Senator Ted Cruz warned that a Democratic takeover of Congress could see Elon Musk targeted with subpoenas over his work with President Trump
Musk had campaigned against Talarico, who defeated Paxton in the Senate race by 55 percent to 43 percent, according to the Associated Press
Meanwhile, 76 percent said they would oppose the construction of a data center in their community.
Republican Senator Ted Cruz warned that a Democratic takeover of Congress could bring increased scrutiny of technology executives who had worked with Trump.
Speaking on the All-In livestream, Cruz said: ‘The Democrats have already foreshadowed that if they have one or both houses, they’re going to use subpoenas to go after business executives who’ve worked with the president, to go after Elon Musk.’
‘They’ve already declared they intend to engage in lawfare and in open attacks. Bernie Sanders has suggested nationalizing, seizing SpaceX and Starlink. This is stuff out of like the Fidel Castro’s Cuba that they’re talking about,’ he added.
On X, some users were already discussing whether they should leave Texas altogether.
‘I fear most for Elon, he will be crushed by the Democrat state of Texas and the red tape will go up immediately and building halted almost overnight,’ one user wrote.
‘He has to spend hundreds of billions to move to Florida. Tesla will [lose] hundreds of billions; might as well shut down Starbase.’
Others said they were considering moving out of the state.
‘Lol i’m leaving. Texas is cooked now. Especially Dallas and Houston,’ one user wrote.
Another said: ‘If Texas turns blue tonight, I’m prepared to relocate my family to Florida or Tennessee. I’m not going to sit here and watch Texas slowly turn into a liberal sh**hole.’
A third wrote: ‘I’m honestly considering moving to Florida. I’d love to stay and fight where I’m at, but you cannot fight a corrupt system with fraudulent elections. We need about 100 Trumps to fix our country and there is only one of him. Texas broke my heart last night. I need some positive motivation now more than ever.’
