Inflation Reduction Act, Democratic Party’s Electric-Vehicle Tax Credits Helping Fuel Trump Campaign

In a twist of fate the progressive Left certainly did not see coming, electric-vehicle tax credits, a key component of the Democratic Party’s policy agenda over the past few years, have benefitted an unlikely cause: The 2024 campaign of former president Donald Trump.

Vice President Kamala Harris cast the tie-breaking vote in favor of the Inflation Reduction Act in August 2022, enshrining into law a raft of climate-focused policies including tens of billions of dollars in incentives for electric-vehicle production. Those who buy qualifying EVs, one of the provisions of the IRA holds, receive a tax credit of up to $7,500.

Harris has in fact taken the lead on much of the current administration’s EV-related work, traveling to Detroit to announce a $100-million program for car manufacturers to build out EV production facilities. And her running mate, Minnesota governor Tim Walz, has long supported EV tax credits. In 2021, he introduced a plan to incentivize the purchase of electric vehicles and put forward a similar tax credit in 2023. By spring 2024, his state began its rollout of $2,500 rebates for EV buyers, earmarking $10.6 million in fiscal year 2024 and $5.2 million in fiscal year 2025 for the program.

One of the largest beneficiaries of the EV tax credit is Tesla, which produces the most popular EV on the market, Kelly Blue Book data published in July shows. With 198,030 Model Ys sold halfway through 2024 and 232,700 Model 3s sold during 2023, it is Elon Musk’s company that has dominated the EV industry in recent years. Since 2019, a plurality of Tesla buyers have been Democrats, and those Democratic customers may not be incredibly pleased with where some of that money goes. The company’s shareholders approved a staggering $46 billion pay package for the Tesla CEO earlier in August, and a portion of that sum is likely to aid Trump in his bid to retake the White House.

Musk announced last month that he would establish a pro-Trump super PAC, having contributed at least $5.8 million for get-out-the-vote campaigns thus far. Outside his own donations, the PAC has to this point raised $8.8 million, and Musk has attended hour-long weekly meetings with PAC staffers focused on increasing voter turnout for the former president in swing states.

If Trump does eke out victories in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, Harris’s tie-breaking vote for the IRA may have played a role in sealing her fate.