Steve Jennings/Getty Images for TechCrunch
Many members of the Democratic party and billionaire Elon Musk have had a contentious relationship in recent years, but Aaron Levie, cofounder and CEO of the cloud services company Box, thinks that should change.
In an interview with Business Insider, Levie explained why he thinks Democrats should make an effort to embrace Musk, and how he thinks it would benefit American innovation.
"You want to support innovation and progress and technological advancements on either side," Levie said, adding that not doing so can "create a dynamic where people believe that certain areas of innovation have become partisan."
Levie supported Vice President Kamala Harris for president, donating to her campaign as well as President Joe Biden's before he dropped out of the race.
He said he believed the Democratic Party had generally been pro-science and pro-innovation but that they let politics get in the way.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment from BI, nor did Musk.
Before going all-in on Donald Trump, Musk previously donated to both Democrats and Republicans and said he voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020.
However, Musk and Biden's relationship soured during his presidency. Fans of the billionaire accused Biden of ignoring achievements at Tesla and SpaceX for years.
In 2021, Biden held an electric-vehicle summit and did not invite Tesla, the largest seller of EVs in the US. Musk later wrote on Twitter that the White House had given Tesla "the cold shoulder."
There were several other occasions in which Biden praised other car manufacturers, like Ford and GM, for their work on EVs without mentioning Tesla. In 2022, Musk said he thought Biden was ignoring the company in favor of legacy car makers. The same year, thousands of Tesla fans signed a petition calling on the president to acknowledge the company's leadership on EVs.
Biden did offer praise to Tesla in an X post in 2023 when the company announced it was opening some of its charging network up to EVs made by other manufacturers, prompting Musk to thank him in a reply.
By May 2022, Musk said he could no longer support Democrats, calling them "the party of division and hate," and said he'd be voting Republican going forward.
More recently Biden called out Musk in October over a report that said Musk had once worked in the US illegally, a claim Musk denied.
"That wealthiest man in the world turned out to be an illegal worker here," Biden said at a campaign rally, adding, "He was violating the law. And he's talking about all these illegals coming our way?"
Levie said the break-up with Musk was bad for Democrats politically and that the party should be open to working with Musk. He said recent comments by two Democratic lawmakers showed how they that was possible.
In a Fox News interview this week, Sen. Chris Coons, a Democrat from Delaware, praised the potential of the Department of Government Efficiency. President-elect Donald Trump announced last week Musk would co-lead the effort, which is aimed at slashing federal government spending.
"Depending on how it's structured and what they do, this could be a constructive undertaking that ought to be embraced," Coons said.
Musk responded to the clip on X, tagging the senator and saying it was "much appreciated."
In a statement to BI, a spokesperson for Coons said, "The American people expect their government to work as hard as they do, and Senator Coons will continue to keep open mind about any effort to innovate our government and make it more efficient without cutting necessary services."
Levie also pointed to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg working with Musk on Starlink access during the Hurricane Helene relief efforts. Musk praised Buttigieg afterward, saying he was "on the ball."
Although some of Levie's politics differ from Musk's, he said he thinks the Tesla CEO is well-equipped to propose policies that will advance innovation in key areas, including space, electric vehicles, new energy sources, autonomy, artificial intelligence, social media, and others. He said he thinks Musk would be uniquely able to identify things that get in the way of progress in those areas.
"I think there's almost nobody as equipped as Elon is to see that many different topics and to be able to kind of push innovation forward," he said, adding that if the US could lead in all of those areas it would set the country up economically for the century to come.
In a recent interview with Politico, Levie said Musk has a track record for excelling at particularly difficult tasks, citing his accomplishments at Tesla and SpaceX.
"I think the incredible thing about Elon is that when he has a vision for accomplishing something, he effectively finds a way to manifest it into reality," he told the outlet.
Musk is set to lead the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, alongside Vivek Ramaswamy. In an op-ed published in The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, Musk and Ramaswamy said the commission would focus on slashing government spending and cutting the federal government workforce.
Skeptics have said Musk's stated goal of cutting $2 trillion in spending would be very difficult, especially without cutting funding to popular programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and the Department of Defense, which account for a large portion of the federal budget.
