Anti-Tesla protests are fueled by huge democratic donors.
58-year-old billionaire Steve Jurvetson is an early Tesla investor who served on the board until December 2020 and continues to sit on the SpaceX board of masks. However, according to public records, his ex-wife, California psychiatrist Carla Julvetson, 58, divided over $500,000 into inseparable actions.
Washington-based advocacy group Indivisible sponsors “Musk or Us” demonstrations nationwide this week. The group certifies a “toolkit” with graphics and anti-Tesla protest signs and a “toolkit” with information on how to implement City Hall.
Their website states: “We support the massive systematic efforts needed to defend our democracy and each other against Trump's authoritarian agenda.”
The group is opposed to masks and protesting leaders of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an initiative to streamline federal bureaucracy.
“Republicans are enabling Musk to make decisions and promote policies that directly hurt working families while enriching billionaires like them,” the group said on its website.
“We cannot allow Republicans to support the Constitution and renounce their responsibility to serve their constituents in order to curry favor with Musk.”
Some protesters have destroyed Tesla vehicles and showrooms across the country, causing fires and painted showrooms.
Karla Jurvetson is known in Northern California as a democratic mega-donor. In addition to being inseparable, she has given more than $9.5 million to progressive Democratic candidates, including former New York MP Jamal Bowman and Minnesota's Ilhan Omar, who lost her re-election bid last year. She also donated more than $100,000 to the Kamala Harris victory fund in 2023.
He married a Stanford University-educated psychiatrist and his mother in 1990, and filed for divorce in 2016, according to court records. A year later, Steve left venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jur Betson.
“An internal investigation conducted by Draper Fisher Jurvetson found that Jurvetson was having problems with multiple women at the same time,” the report said. Recode, Tech News website. “A woman working in the tech industry met him at a professional meeting.”
According to Recode, the women discovered a duplicate of Jul Betson at a TED conference in Vancouver in March 2015.
In a Facebook post on November 14, 2017, Jurvetson denied the allegation.
“A totally false allegations of sexual predation and workplace harassment,” he said. “Let me be completely clear. Such allegations are not true.
“I think my personal life and the personal life of others should remain personal,” continued Jul Betson. “It should not be in the court of public opinion. This is the last thing I would say about this subject in the near future.” Jurvetson remarried at the end of 2018. He founded a new company, Future Ventures.
While both Julvetsons supported the Democrats, Carla Julvetson emerged as one of the most prolific donors to Democratic women in politics during the 2020 election cycle.
She donated nearly $15 million to Democrat Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and in 2018 she gave $30 million to Emily's List PAC, which supports abortion candidates.
Steve Jourvesson has his own left-leaning charity, along with his new wife, the Julvetson Foundation.
He also continues to support Musk.
“The best investment I've ever made – Buy Tesla with my family and future ventures” Jurvetson Posted on x last week.
“It's too valuable to trust anything other than the safest cars, especially for my co-founder who ultimately abandoned her bike!”
Jurvetson played a key role in Musk and helped bail the billionaire in 2008 when he ran out of cash to support Tesla and SpaceX.
“He's truly an American hero and more than anyone I've ever met.” Business Insider 2012. “I've always been a follower.”
Neither Carla nor Steve Jurvesson returned a request for comment.
