Steve Davis is often called upon by Mr. Musk to help in all-hands-on-deck situations, such as after Mr. Musk’s purchase of Twitter.
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Elon Musk at a campaign rally with former President Donald J. Trump in Butler, Pa., last week.
One of Elon Musk’s most trusted lieutenants has joined the crew of people working for his pro-Trump super PAC, the latest sign of how Mr. Musk is investing his personal brand, energy and network into the group in the final weeks of the presidential campaign.
Steve Davis, the president of the Boring Company, Mr. Musk’s tunneling company, is now volunteering his time with America PAC, according to a person familiar with the group’s activities who was granted anonymity because Mr. Davis’s involvement is confidential. Mr. Davis has spent recent days in Pennsylvania, the battleground state that is Mr. Musk’s top priority, and he was intimately involved with the super PAC’s plan to pay people who persuade voters to sign a petition $47 apiece as part of a voter-data push from the group, the person said.
The arrival of Mr. Davis suggests that Mr. Musk, the world’s richest man and the leader of Tesla and X, is taking the super PAC’s operations seriously. During his decades in Silicon Valley, Mr. Musk has surrounded himself with a small coterie of aides and allies who invest in his companies and offer him counsel in crises, and he has long turned to Mr. Davis in critical moments during his career.
Mr. Davis has worked for Mr. Musk since joining SpaceX, his rocket company, in 2003, and was among the executives who served as a landing team of sorts at Twitter when Mr. Musk bought the company in 2022. Mr. Musk specifically asked him to help manage the company’s costs through layoffs and cost reductions.
Mr. Davis is reportedly a fan of Ayn Rand who has said, “I know nothing about politics,” but his main role on America PAC’s senior team, which is led by veterans of Republican politics, is to help reflect how Mr. Musk thinks about issues.
Mr. Davis did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Musk did not publicly align himself much with the super PAC initially, seeking to keep his involvement under wraps. But he has embraced the group in recent days. In addition to being the entity’s key funder, Mr. Musk has an enormous megaphone and a well-defined brand that he has used to elevate the nascent super PAC.
Theodore Schleifer is a Times reporter covering campaign finance and the influence of billionaires in American politics. More about Theodore Schleifer
See more on: Elon Musk, Donald Trump, Boring Company, U.S. Politics
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Source: nytimes.com
