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May 2, 2025
BOCA CHICA VILLAGE, Texas — Driving down a long empty stretch of Highway 4 in South Texas, there are few indications that this windswept corner of the nation, bound by the Gulf of Mexico and the Rio Grande, is host to more than dense mesquite thickets and the ghosts of the Civil War. The land feels vast, unchanging and decidedly apolitical — bigger than people altogether.
That is, until a break in the brush reveals an enormous gold bust of Elon Musk, staring into the distance.
Then, signs of the political moment are everywhere. U.S. Immigration and Enforcement agents in bullet-proof jackets flag down passing cars at an inland border checkpoint.
A road leading off the highway reads “Mars-a-Lago.” A hundred yards away, bookending an old, black Studebaker parked for-sale in a dusty pullout, murals of Musk’s face and the DOGE Shiba Inu plaster two 30-foot concrete towers.
Right now, this roughly 1.5 square mile community is technically unincorporated Boca Chica Village. But on Saturday, the 200-odd residents — the vast majority of whom are SpaceX employees — will decide whether the land surrounding Musk’s massive rocket launchpad should become its own city: Starbase, Texas. It is an election that the region has been marching toward since December, when several dozen residents submitted a petition to South Texas’ Cameron County asking it to schedule an election that would incorporate Starbase as its own municipality. The move would give SpaceX increased autonomy, virtually its own government, and greater ability to build where and how it wants.
Nearly 2,000 miles from Washington, this election comes at a strange time for Musk. A man who seems to disregard (or “delete”) regulations and systems that do not serve him is now aiming to define ordinances on the most local level, building a new city from the ground up in rural Texas. After a period in which Musk was seen as a shadow president, he will now become the de-facto mayor of his own small town.
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BOCA CHICA VILLAGE, Texas — Driving down a long empty stretch of Highway 4 in South Texas, there are few indications that this windswept corner of the nation, bound by the Gulf of Mexico and the Rio Grande, is host to more than dense mesquite thickets and the ghosts of the Civil War. The land feels vast, unchanging and decidedly apolitical — bigger than people altogether.
That is, until a break in the brush reveals an enormous gold bust of Elon Musk, staring into the distance.
Then, signs of the political moment are everywhere. U.S. Immigration and Enforcement agents in bullet-proof jackets flag down passing cars at an inland border checkpoint.
A road leading off the highway reads “Mars-a-Lago.” A hundred yards away, bookending an old, black Studebaker parked for-sale in a dusty pullout, murals of Musk’s face and the DOGE Shiba Inu plaster two 30-foot concrete towers.
Right now, this roughly 1.5 square mile community is technically unincorporated Boca Chica Village. But on Saturday, the 200-odd residents — the vast majority of whom are SpaceX employees — will decide whether the land surrounding Musk’s massive rocket launchpad should become its own city: Starbase, Texas. It is an election that the region has been marching toward since December, when several dozen residents submitted a petition to South Texas’ Cameron County asking it to schedule an election that would incorporate Starbase as its own municipality. The move would give SpaceX increased autonomy, virtually its own government, and greater ability to build where and how it wants.
Nearly 2,000 miles from Washington, this election comes at a strange time for Musk. A man who seems to disregard (or “delete”) regulations and systems that do not serve him is now aiming to define ordinances on the most local level, building a new city from the ground up in rural Texas. After a period in which Musk was seen as a shadow president, he will now become the de-facto mayor of his own small town.
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