Initiative petitions filed Friday would require Tesla to use independent franchises to market its cars or shutdown Kansas City, St. Louis showrooms.
BY: RUDI KELLER
Missouri Independent
An initiative effort begun Friday by a well-known Missouri Democrat would, if passed by voters next year, force Tesla to close its St. Louis and Kansas City showrooms.
Brad Ketcher, a St. Louis attorney who was chief of staff to Democratic Gov. Mel Carnahan in the 1990s, said he hopes the effort spreads to other states to fight back against Tesla CEO Elon Musk for his lead role in mass federal layoffs and budget cuts for President Donald Trump.
“If Elon Musk was not cutting Medicaid and Social Security and veterans health to fund a tax cut for billionaires and doing it with a bizarre glee, we would not be asking Missourians to say this guy does not deserve to be doing business in this state,” Ketcher said. “We would not be trying to drive this in Missouri.”
Tesla did not immediately respond to an email from The Independent seeking comment on the initiative.
Soon after winning election in November, Trump named Musk to lead a newly created Department of Government Efficiency with instructions to find savings in the federal budget.
Since taking office, Musk has, among other actions, closed the U.S. Agency for International Development, been granted access to payment systems delivering benefits to millions of Americans, put the entire Department of Education on the chopping block and slashed the staff of the Social Security Administration.
Many of those actions have been challenged in court and temporarily halted. Republicans in Congress, meanwhile, are pushing through a budget resolution that would extend tax cuts enacted in 2017 while making deep cuts in Medicaid and food programs.
The initiatives filed with the secretary of state’s office would use Missouri’s law governing motor vehicle sales, which requires new cars, trucks and motorcycles to be sold through franchised dealers, to force Tesla out. Two versions were filed Friday, and more may be written before the signature drive begins, Ketcher said.
The petitions must be reviewed and put out for public comment before the signature drive.
Prior to the arrival of Tesla, all new motor vehicles sold in Missouri were purchased at authorized franchises with ownership independent of the manufacturer. In 2013, the Department of Revenue licensed a franchise owned by Tesla for a St. Louis showroom and followed it up the next year by licensing a Kansas City showroom.
The initiatives would cause those licenses to be revoked. The first version filed states that “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 that law.
To make the ballot, the committee called UnPlug Musk must gather at least 106,384 signatures properly distributed among six of the state’s congressional districts. The petition drive must be complete by the start of May 2026.
Ketcher said that so far, he and former state Rep. Deb Lavender, a St. Louis County Democrat, treasurer of the committee, are the only people enlisted for the effort. He hopes to build a coalition quickly, he said.
“This gives Missourians a chance to say this guy is not welcome to do business in our state,” Ketcher said.
The petition drive would not be the first attempt to use state law to keep Tesla from opening its company-owned showrooms in Missouri. In 2014, Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe, then a state senator, helped write a provision for a bill that fell just short of passing to require all auto manufacturers to sell their vehicles through a franchise dealership.
Kehoe owned Ford and Lincoln-Mercury franchises in Jefferson City from 1992 to 2011. He sold the dealerships before entering politics.
He told the Springfield News-Leader in 2014 that he was surprised the department issued a dealership license to Tesla.
“Our question as dealers and people I know in the business: how in the world when we’ve worked so hard to get franchise legislation, how in the world could that be possible?” Kehoe said to the News-Leader.
The Missouri Automobile Dealers Association and others sued the department over its licensing decision, winning at the trial court level before the Western District Court of Appeals ruled none of the plaintiffs had a legal right to challenge the licenses.
In its briefs for the appeals court, Tesla acknowledged that the legislature could block it from having manufacturer-owned dealerships.
“Plainly, if the legislature had wanted to erect a blanket direct sales ban, it could and would have done so clearly and straightforwardly by amending the existing partial ban in the franchise act,” attorneys wrote.
The auto dealers did not return a call seeking comment on the initiative.
There are some states where Tesla is not operating dealerships because of franchise laws. In Wisconsin, where Musk is spending millions on the state Supreme Court election, Tesla is suing to overturn the franchise law.
Ketcher said he wants the effort to be joined by groups from other states with the initiative petition process and Democratically-controlled legislatures.
“Even in red states, somebody can hold up an amendment, and say, here’s the amendment to drive Tesla, drive Musk, out of our state,” he said.
The language of the initiative, Ketcher said, is taken, with only technical changes, from the provisions Kehoe supplied for the 2014 bill. Tesla attorneys acknowledged during the litigation that it would effectively shut down their showrooms, Ketcher noted.
“They’ve given us plans for the Death Star,” Ketcher said. “And when when somebody gives you the plans for Death Star, you know what to do.”