JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Gov. Ron DeSantis took some of the wind out of the sails of Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis and Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry, who have both been urging Elon Musk to relocate Twitter to Florida.
On Monday, the governor said importing a tech company from San Francisco is not high on his administration’s agenda.
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Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis has spent the last month tweeting at Elon Musk, urging the billionaire to move Twitter headquarters to the Sunshine State.
We spoke with him last week about the idea.
“I think there’s a new sheriff in town with Elon Musk, and I think there’s no better place for him to expand this new leadership and new way of governance than right here in the Sunshine State of Florida,” said Patronis in an April interview.
That same day, we were the first to ask Mayor Lenny Curry about Jacksonville being a possible nesting spot for Twitter’s little blue bird.
“I think it would be a great landing spot,” said Curry. “Think if I tweet him, you think he’ll see my tweet and respond?”
That’s exactly what Curry did, tweeting at Musk a handful of times after the interview.
It even spurred a digital billboard on Interstate 95, displaying the message, ”Hey Elon #RelocateTwitterHQtoJax.”
Gov. DeSantis put a damper on the Twitter hype Monday, when we asked if he supported moving the company to Florida.
“Okay yeah, they enjoy our lower taxes, but what are they really providing?” said DeSantis.
DeSantis suggested a tech giant moving in could further inflate home prices, and emphasized his administration’s focus is on attracting industries that will create more production and vocational jobs.
He did say he supports what Musk is doing and that the state stands to benefit from the takeover, even without the company moving to Florida.
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“I think $15-$20 million profit in our pension fund, but then he will make that company more valuable. I have no doubt about it, but I’m not wanting to import that necessarily into the state of Florida,” said DeSantis.
Whether the governor’s comments will shut down the CFO and mayors’ efforts to lobby Musk to make a snow-bird out of Twitter is unclear.
We didn’t hear back from the mayor’s office and the CFO was unavailable for an interview Monday.
The CFO’s office did provide us with an emailed statement that reads, “I agree with the Governor. Twitter shadow banned conservatives, acted as partisan liberals, and shutdown the Hunter Biden story. Elon has his work cut out for him cleaning up Twitter”.
However, he didn’t address the governor’s lack of interest in making Florida Twitter’s new home base.
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