Mike Honda Belatedly Wakes Up to Loss of Tesla Jobs

Press Release

At the beginning of this month, Tesla revealed that it would build its $5 billion gigafactory -- and its 6,500 good paying jobs -- in Nevada rather than California where the company is headquartered. Inexplicably, Congressman Honda didn't lift a finger to keep the battery factory in the Bay Area. Only after Ro Khanna published an op-ed in the Mercury News on the inaction of local leaders did Honda finally act -- as one of 23 signatories to a letter asking Tesla to build their next factory in California.

"Congressman Honda is shutting the barn door after the animals are long gone," said Ro Khanna. "We needed active leadership when the decision was being made -- not after we lost the competition. It's as if Congressman Honda just woke up and discovered that 6,500 good jobs have left the building."

This is just the latest example of Congressman Honda failing to address the most pressing issues facing the people of his district. Last year, he neglected to take a position on the Comcast merger after taking thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Comcast. He only came out against the unpopular merger after Ro publicly raised the specter of higher cable prices and less Internet competition for local consumers. Now, Congressman Honda has finally awakened on Tesla -- a company that started manufacturing its cars in Fremont in part because of a grant that Khanna worked on at the Department of Commerce. The grant was awarded to Fremont to keep the city as a manufacturing hub. Unfortunately, there will be no next time for the 6,500 battery jobs.

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