This Kentucky Conservative Owns A Tesla, Lives Off The Grid, And Is Democrats’ New Go-To Republican
“No one should ever confuse me with a partisan; I’m clearly an ideologue,” says Thomas Massie, the libertarian, gun-rights stalwart, MIT grad who is a surprising bipartisan.
May 3, 2015
Kate Nocera
Shortly after Thomas Massie arrived in Congress, the freshman Republican sought out Zoe Lofgren — a liberal from California — on the House floor.
He wanted to know if electric car company Tesla was in her district because he proudly owned one and he charged his car solar panels at his home.
Tesla isn’t in Lofgren’s district (it’s just outside of it), but the conversation left her baffled. Massie is from a deeply conservative Kentucky district.
“I thought well, that’s interesting, let me find out some more about this guy,” Lofgren recalled.
The pair struck up an unlikely friendship after Lofgren pitched him on several technology bills she’d been working on. They’ve continued to be some of the loudest (and at times effective) voices in Congress on curbing surveillance programs.
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