In addition to Musk’s control over the company, Starbase is expected to be overseen by three people with longstanding connections with SpaceX, all of whom ran unopposed and without much electoral flair.
The Texas Tribune, along with the nonprofit Sunlight Research Center, reviewed the three candidates’ public records and social media to understand who will govern the newly designated area.
“There have been no signs of a traditional campaign along the Boca Chica Beach region in South Texas,” the Tribune’s Berenice Garcia wrote on Friday. “No yard signs. No campaign websites. No candidate forums.”
Only one person ran for Mayor of Starbase: Robert “Bobby” Peden. Peden is in his mid-thirties, has worked for SpaceX for over a decade, and contributed $5,000 to SpaceX’s political action committee in December.
Jenna Petrzelka and Jordan Buss ran to be the two commissioners for Starbase. Petrzelka, whose husband also works at SpaceX, started at the company in 2012 and rose to manager of operations engineering at Starbase, a role she had for about a year leading up to last summer. On campaign documents, she listed herself as a “philanthropist.” In 2022, she volunteered at Good Neighbor Settlement House, a local nonprofit assisting migrants and the homeless community.
Buss, a senior director of Environmental Health and Safety for SpaceX, has worked at the company since 2023. That year, he made a $600 political contribution to the SpaceX PAC.
After Saturday’s vote to create the city of Starbase, the three candidates win automatically.
The city’s incorporation comes as both a professional and personal win for Musk, who has faced backlash from Americans across the country for his actions heading up the Department of Government Efficiency since President Donald Trump took office just over a hundred days ago.
In addition to nationwide protests against Musk at Tesla facilities and his involvement in gutting key federal funding programs, multiple polls have illustrated broad disapproval for the billionaire’s growing influence in Washington.
