By Vanguard Staff
Yolo County, CA – Indivisible Yolo has joined Divest Musk Yolo as an official co-sponsor, adding to a growing grassroots campaign calling for the end of public subsidies, contracts, and investments in companies controlled by Elon Musk. The announcement comes as momentum builds behind the campaign, with Nor Cal Resist and the Yolo Interfaith Immigration Network submitting formal letters of support.
The campaign has gathered over 1,300 signatures on a petition urging the Yolo County Board of Supervisors and city governments in Davis, Woodland, West Sacramento, and Winters to sever ties with Musk-controlled companies including Tesla, SpaceX, Starlink, Neuralink, X (formerly Twitter), The Boring Company, and xAI.
A spokesperson for Divest Musk Yolo said, “Yolo County taxpayers should not be forced to fund Elon Musk’s assault on public services, democratic institutions, and basic rights. Local dollars should reflect local values—and Elon Musk’s values could not be further from what our community stands for.”
The campaign is pushing for a series of actions, including halting new financial agreements with Musk’s companies, reviewing existing contracts and subsidies for potential cancellation, and ending the use of Musk-owned platforms such as X and xAI in government operations. The group is also urging CalPERS to stop purchasing Tesla stock and begin divestment, and is calling for due diligence before approving any future Musk-affiliated projects in the county.
Divest Musk Yolo aligns itself with national and international efforts targeting Musk’s empire. Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, recently became the first U.S. pension board to block further Tesla investments. The American Federation of Teachers has called for divestment, while public unions in Canada and national pension funds in Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands have already blacklisted Tesla over labor rights concerns.
The campaign cites a range of concerns about Musk’s companies, including workplace deaths, union busting, environmental violations, misleading financial disclosures, and the spread of hate speech and disinformation on X. Musk was also the largest individual donor in the 2024 election cycle, spending more than $288 million in support of Donald Trump and other far-right candidates.
Critics argue that Musk’s political influence has extended into federal governance through initiatives such as the “Department of Government Efficiency,” which embedded operatives in federal agencies and allegedly used data access to undermine public benefits programs and monitor political opponents.
Tesla has faced financial challenges in recent months, with profits falling 71 percent in early 2025. Despite this, public institutions like CalPERS still hold billions in Tesla stock.
“Public money should never bankroll authoritarian billionaires,” said an organizer with Divest Musk Yolo. “The time has come to divest our community from Elon Musk’s corruption, cruelty, and chaos.”
Indivisible Yolo’s co-sponsorship, along with letters of support from Nor Cal Resist and the Yolo Interfaith Immigration Network, underscores what organizers describe as a broad base of support from across labor, faith, and immigrant justice groups.
Divest Musk Yolo is urging residents to contact their city councils and county supervisors in support of a divestment resolution, calling for local governments to ensure that no additional public funds go to Musk-affiliated companies.
I’ll bet the Yolo County grassroots campaign has Musk shaking in his boots.
Elon Musk is like Liz Cheney, he has somehow managed to get everyone hating on him.
If pension funds stopped investing in corporations that are determined to be engaged in “evil activities”, the entire pension fund system would collapse.
ALL of them are engaged in evil activities, one way or another. :-)
As for Musk, it’s our system which enabled him to become a “celebrity” (and to feed his ego).
As someone recently pointed out to me; if Musk was a citizen of China, you might not even know who he is. (He might just be another brilliant party member – working silently in the background to take down America.)
:-)