Electric vehicle and retail billionaire Elon Musk won a Twitter poll over Democratic Party member of Congress from New York Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez earlier today. Mr. Musk has been quite vocal about his political opinions lately, in the aftermath of his multi-billion dollar attempt to acquire the social media platform. He has shared his views on free speech and his belief that Twitter can change its operating model. The executive has also come under criticism from Ms. Ocasio-Cortez on his views about employee unions, and the two engaged in a Twitter war earlier this month after the latter complained about “billionaires with an ego” problem. To set the record straight and prove how the U.S. political left can create its own polls to bolster viewpoints, an opinion writer for the grassroots political organization Occupy Democrats decided to ask users if they trusted Ms. Ocasio-Cortez more than Mr. Musk. However, the results went against what Mr. David Weissman, who created the poll, was expecting as they delivered a decisive win for the billionaire.
Elon Musk Wins Twitter Poll Asking If People Trust Him More Than Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Musk’s decision to jump into the political fray after deciding to buy Twiter has seen the billionaire become the center of yet another controversy. The executive, known best for his electric vehicle and aerospace companies - both of which have significantly outpaced their competitors with their technological prowess and market share - is often the center of public attention, and sometimes for not so vanilla reasons. When compared to his other ultrarich peers, Musk maintains an active Twitter presence as he engages with his followers on a daily basis. This has resulted in him having one of the largest follower base on the platform, however, given the recent controversies about true and duplicate accounts on Twitter, the true number of his followers is unclear. Naturally, Musk’s presence on Twitter ended up influencing the outcome of the poll, especially since the total number of votes cast is higher than the number of people that follow Weissman’s Twitter account. Once the results were out, Musk expressed surprise at them, claiming that he initially thought that the poll was a parody. Additionally, the executive had also conducted a poll of his own earlier, that was broader in nature. It simply asked Musk’s followers and anyone else that came across that whether they would trust politicians more than billionaires. This poll, which saw roughly 3.4 million votes cast, resulted in a resolute win for politicians and with nearly the same percentage voting in politicians’ favor as had voted in Musk’s in Weissman’s poll. However, while the results of the Musk vs Ocasio-Cortez poll were in the former’s favor, many Twitter users shared their dissatisfaction. The first was from Weissman himself, who shared his surprise at the result, particularly since they had favored the congresswoman earlier. He was joined by others, some of who claimed that fake accounts or ‘bots’ belonging to Musk had led to the win, while others even went as far as to claim that the polls were simply a forerunner for Musk to announce a campaign for the president of the United States. Musk is ineligible to run for the highest office in the land since he is a naturalized U.S. citizen. Some simply used the results to demonstrate that the left wing enjoys far less support than is popularly believed. When Ocasio-Cortez’s supporters were asked why they supported her over the billionaire, they replied that while Musk makes decisions solely influenced by money and power, the congresswoman is instead motivated by her compassion for the world around her.
