Are fewer Democrats buying Teslas because of Elon Musk's political views?

See Elon Musk Lost Democrats on Tesla When He Needed Them Most: Some potential Tesla buyers couldn’t stomach a purchase amid the CEO’s fall outbursts, data suggest by Tim Higgins of The WSJ. Excerpts:

"For years, the biggest cohort of Tesla TSLA 15.35%increase; green up pointing triangle buyers, politically speaking, has been Democrats. But when Elon Musk took a hard turn last fall, they didn’t follow him. 

The proportion of Democrats buying Tesla vehicles fell by more than 60%, according to car buyers surveyed in October and November by researcher Strategic Vision."

"The fall contraction coincided with Musk’s being increasingly vocal about illegal immigration, amplifying a tweet promoting antisemitic vitriol and publicly attacking Disney over his contention that the entertainment company had become too woke. (Musk has called the troublesome tweet foolish, and the Mouse House CEO has defended its positions while saying it needs to stay focused on entertainment.)

In many ways, Musk was sounding a lot like Donald Trump, embracing billionaire populism, and less like the green hero he was once celebrated as."

"U.S. politics has polarized the technology, which some Republicans have denigrated in their campaigns."

"the mix of Democrats, who have been core constituents for the Tesla brand, had remained mostly steady—until last fall.

Among 2022 model-year buyers, Democrats made up 40% of Tesla customers and 39% in 2023, according to Strategic Vision’s surveys. Things began to change in the 2024 model year survey, which began in October. The makeup of Democrats fell to 15% while Republicans jumped to 32% and independents swelled to 44%. 

Those results show Tesla was losing sales among Democrats"

"In California, a solid-blue state, registrations of new Tesla vehicles fell almost 10% in the fourth quarter. That was a stunning reversal from the third quarter when registrations rose 43%, and perhaps a sign of things to come nationally."

"Former President Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for the White House, has made attacks on electric cars a regular talking point during his campaign"

"Musk has said he is against Biden but has stopped short of saying he will back Trump."

"While Democrats’ ranks fell at the end of the year, some came back in subsequent surveys by Strategic Vision, rising to 35% of the mix of buyers through late February—still not what they traditionally had been, but better than last fall when their share was weakening." 

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See also Americans start caring more about deficits and the national debt when the party they oppose runs them up by John V. Kane of New York University and Ian G. Anson of The University of Maryland. Excerpt:

"In the past two decades, US budget deficits have skyrocketed, and the national debt is now over $22 trillion. But do Americans care about the size of deficits and the national debt? In new research, John V. Kane and Ian G. Anson find that people tend to care more about the deficits and debts when they are increased by presidents from the party that they oppose. Both Republicans and Democrats, they write, become less concerned about governments running deficits when their President is in charge."