Twitter to Jacksonville? Mayor Curry joins in on calls for social media giant to relocate to Florida

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Now that Elon Musk is set to be the official owner of Twitter, Florida’s Chief Financial Officer is ratcheting up his calls for the company to move to the Sunshine State.

The idea is getting a lot of play, with Jacksonville’s Mayor Lenny Curry pitching the Bold City as a possible landing spot Tuesday.

CFO Jimmy Patronis first pitched the idea of Twitter migrating to the Sunshine State earlier this month.

Now that the sale to Musk is official, he’s renewing that call.

“I think it would be a smart decision for him both in a business, but also in a philosophical-wise. You know, all we want to do is see companies prosper,” said Patronis.

Musk has a record of moving his companies out of California.

Just last December Musk moved Tesla’s operations to Texas, which also happens to be eyeing Twitter.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott made his pitch… over Twitter, of course, urging Musk to send yet another company to the Lone Star State.

It prompted Patronis to take this shot, tweeting back at the Governor, “You better bring a lot of solar panels and a big battery. (Texas’ power grid is not great)”.

Patronis told us while the Twitter spat was all in good fun, there is some logic behind his jab at Texas.

“They have no outside sources of electricity that can come into stabilize everyday businesses. Twitter is not a business that can take a chance of not being functional,” said Patronis.

Mayor Curry applauded Patronis’ efforts and even suggested Jacksonville as a potential new home for the company.

“I think it would be a great landing spot,” said Curry.

We asked the mayor what advantages Jacksonville has over other Florida cities.

“FIN-tech is huge in Jacksonville. We’re really on the map of a lot of companies representing a lot of employees. A lot of access to talent in the area. So again, come on Elon,” said Curry.

As far as a response from Musk, Patronis told he’s heard from Musk’s team that the billionaire has been commenting about the CFO’s tweets.

Specifically this one where Patronis posted a photo of a Florida beach, pitching it as a possible office view for Twitter HQ.

©2022 Cox Media Group