A small group of voters in West Texas voted in Saturday's election, which could give Elon Musk a small town to call his own vote. The vote will officially create a new city called Starbase, the area where the Texas Rocket launch was held at Musk's SpaceX.

Hundreds of residents formerly known as Boca Chica will decide whether to include their unincorporated communities in a town to grant them the power to pass the city ordinance. The result is almost entirely determined by SpaceX employees and their families (the majority of the local area) and is almost guaranteed to lead to a merger.

The creation of Starbase will put Musk in an unusual position to swing in the corporate town, a distinction that shares more common to the Gilded Age industrialists than most modern American businesses. It would be a small victory for the wealthiest person in the world as he departed from the de facto “Ministry of Government Efficiency” leaders – a role that caused an angry bounce that hurt his public image as well as his business.

Musk isn't officially in charge of Starbase, just like Doge. But the entire city revolves around SpaceX, which is almost entirely composed of the company’s employees and their relatives. As of 2025, the population of the constellation is slightly higher than 500, of which about 260 are SpaceX employees. According to Bloomberg, others are mainly members of the workers’ family.

The town’s proposed mayor, Bobby Peden, 36, has been working at SpaceX since 2013 and is vice president of the Texas testing and launch operations. Neither Peden nor two other city commissioners candidates who are SpaceX employees were opposed.

The constellation is located on a small piece of land near the Mexican border, with a small cove entering the Gulf of Mexico. Prefabricated houses, airflow and palm trees line up on the street. Musk's huge golden bust is 9 feet tall in town. The plaque on the pedestal reads “Elon aka Memelord”.

Last month, Vandals defiled the statue by peeling layers of foam and fiberglass from his cheeks. Behind the bar is a restaurant with only employees called Astropub with neon red "Occupy Mars" sign. One of the main boulevards is called "Meme Street."

While creating a constellation may be a bit like a vanity project, and Musk has been touting for years, it does empower potential cities and their SpaceX leadership to take advantage of the land’s work. Company workers filed the same statement at a legislative hearing in April, saying the creation of a town would help logistics and coordination around the issues of closing roads during the test launch, the Associated Press reported.

Opposite signs

While Starbucks' merger is likely because who can vote in the election, it also faces protests and protests from others in the region. The South Texas Environmental Justice Network Activist Group has been holding protests and urges Texans to email their state representatives to oppose the company. The organization believes that creating a constellation will allow SpaceX to close public beaches in town anytime, anywhere and prevent others from using public land.

"Boca Chica Beach is controlled for people, not Elon Musk," the organization said in a statement on its website. "For generations, residents visited Bocachi Beach for fishing, swimming, and recreation, while the Karizo/Combe Crudo tribe has a spiritual connection to the beach. They should be able to move on."

Musk has made a huge statement about the future of the constellation over the past few years, while urging employees to move to town. He posted on Twitter in 2021: "The constellation will grow by thousands in the next year or two."

SpaceX has become an increasingly valuable part of the Musk empire due to Tesla's candid performance, and the government has turned its contracts related to space travel to SpaceX.

Muke has moved his main residence and business to Texas in recent years. He lives in the sprawling $35 million compound in Austin, which has three separate mansions. During Trump's re-election support last year, he temporarily uprooted and moved to Pennsylvania's swing state.

Musk then lived in the Eisenhower executive office building when he was a senior adviser to Donald Trump, but left the White House in late April, where he moved to the oversight company.