Shut down Tesla showrooms? Amid Elon Musk backlash, Missouri Democrats want it on the ballot

Kacen Bayless and Cayli Yanagida, The Kansas City Star on Apr 1, 2025

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A pair of proposed ballot measures filed in Missouri would ask voters to force Tesla to close its Kansas City and St. Louis showrooms as the car company’s billionaire CEO Elon Musk faces blowback over federal layoffs.

Brad Ketcher, a St. Louis attorney who previously worked in the Missouri Governor’s Office under former Democratic Gov. Mel Carnahan, filed the initiative petitions on Friday. Ketcher, in an interview with The Star, pointed to cuts across the federal workforce tied to Musk.

“He’s going to do it on the back of working people, seniors and veterans,” Ketcher said. “He does it with bizarre glee. This is a way for folks to say that this man, this company, are not welcome in this state.”

Tesla did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on Tuesday.

The proposed initiatives come amid a public outcry against Tesla’s CEO Musk, whom President Donald Trump appointed to oversee the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE. Cybertrucks were burned in Kansas City last month in what police investigated as possible arson, while Kansas and Missouri Republicans have repeatedly faced angry constituents.

The proposed ballot measures, if passed by voters next year, would invoke Missouri state law over motor vehicle sales to force Tesla to give up its Missouri-based showrooms, including Kansas City’s showroom along State Line Road. The state law, called the Motor Vehicle Franchise Practices Act, requires that only franchised dealers sell new automobiles in the state.

Before Tesla, buyers in Missouri purchased all new automobiles at authorized franchises whose ownership was separate from the manufacturer. That system prevented manufacturers from selling cars directly to consumers and was designed to keep profits with local car dealers, Ketcher said.

However, in 2013 the Missouri Department of Revenue granted Tesla a showroom in St. Louis. It licensed a Kansas City showroom a year later. Those moves faced pushback at the time both in the Missouri Capitol and the courts.

Under the proposed ballot measures, dubbed “UnPlug Musk,” those licenses would be stripped.

“It is the express intent of the people to prevent any manufacturer of new motor vehicles from circumventing the public policy as stated in (state law) by engaging in methods of retailing new motor vehicles which are designed to avoid the provisions of (state law),” both proposed ballot measures said.

It remains unclear whether the initiatives will receive enough support, financial backing and signatures to reach the Nov. 3, 2026, ballot. To get to the ballot, campaigners must garner at least 106,384 signatures spread among the state’s congressional districts before next May.

The DOGE initiative led by Musk has slashed its way through the federal workforce, enacting cuts and firings across multiple agencies.

The Kansas City region is bracing for a wave of federal job losses as roughly 30,000 people work for the federal government across the metro region. The Internal Revenue Service, Veterans Affairs, Social Security Administration and other departments with major presences in the region are all eyeing reductions.

In the wake of those reductions, Republican lawmakers have also been forced to face angry constituents.

In February, a furious crowd shouted at U.S. Rep. Mark Alford, a Missouri Republican, at a town hall near Belton in late February. U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall, a Kansas Republican, abruptly ended another event in March after the audience repeatedly pressed him on actions by Trump and Musk.

Ketcher pointed to the intense energy he’s seen against federal firings, saying he’s received dozens of emails from people asking him how to sign his petitions to put a measure on the ballot.

“Now is a great time to ask Missourians, are you for or against Musk doing business in the state? Is he the kind of businessman we want to have operating in Missouri?’” Ketcher said. “I think Missourians are going to say ‘hell no.’”

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