A small group of voters in South Texas on Saturday will decide whether the manufacturing hub for Elon Musk-owned SpaceX, called Starbase, will become a city.
In December, Musk's company submitted a petition requesting an election to incorporate its massive Starbase site in Cameron County just a few miles inland from the Gulf Coast as a city. If a majority of the nearly 300 residents there, most of them SpaceX employees, vote to approve the petition, the leaders they elect at the same time – a mayor and two city commissioners – will be responsible creating the approximately 11/2-square-mile city from scratch.
As of Tuesday, 181 people had cast early ballots, according to county election records, NBC News reported, including the candidates for mayor and city commissioners. Musk, who is eligible to vote in the election, has not yet shown up in early voting data. The candidates, Robert Peden for mayor and Jenna Petrzelka and Jordan Buss for city commissioner, are running unopposed, the Texas Tribune reported.
The Texas Newsroom, a coalition of public radio stations in the Lone Star State, reported Thursday that it obtained a list of the 283 voters eligible to cast a ballot. More than 60% work for SpaceX, according to an analysis of LinkedIn profiles and social media posts documenting their employment. Twenty others were among the dozens of people who signed a petition calling for the incorporation vote.
Musk has wanted Starbase to be its own city since at least 2021, when he posted the idea on Twitter, which he now owns as X. Starbase is where SpaceX builds its boosters and engines and launches its Starship rocket, to be used in a planned mission to Mars, on test flights.
“Creating the city of Starbase, Texas,” Musk wrote. “From thence to Mars. And hence the Stars.”
The city would “streamline the processes required to build the amenities necessary to make the area a world-class place to live,” Starbase General Manager Kathryn Lueders wrote in a December letter to Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño, Jr., posted on her X account.
She wrote the company had already established a clinic and school and, through agreements with the county, manages roads and certain utilities. If incorporated, Starbase could take over those responsibilities as an official government body, she wrote.
Like any city, Starbase would also need to hold regular open meetings and share information about its spending and revenue with the public. This could open the company to more public scrutiny and transparency.
“To continue growing the workforce necessary to rapidly develop and manufacture Starship, we need the ability to grow Starbase as a community,” Lueders wrote.
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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