Resurgence of "Texit" Narrative Following Major Corporations' Announced Moves to Texas

According to the Texas Economic Development & Tourism department, about 250 companies relocated their headquarters to Texas from 2018 to 2024. Elon Musk’s X and SpaceX, Chevron, and financial services firm TIAA were the latest companies to announce their corporate moves to Texas from California in the last month. 

PeakMetrics found that these three corporate announcements drove significant spikes in news coverage and social media posts on Texas’ business environment and appeal to corporations looking to move their U.S. headquarters. While the number of companies relocating to Texas had steadied in the past few years after accelerating in 2020-2021, the sustained level of online discourse since Chevron announced its move in early August may indicate a new acceleration point is just around the bend. 

In surfacing the narratives in the online reaction to these moves, PeakMetrics helps companies pondering such a move defend against the underlying politically-charged issues present in the discussion. 

Our “Detect. Decipher. Defend.” Framework

Detect:

PeakMetrics detected that corporate headquarter relocations to Texas generated significantly elevated news coverage up to a week after the initial announcements, though Chevron’s announcement drove about half the news coverage of Musk’s announcement. 

Notably, Chevron’s announcement generated more buzz on X (Twitter) than in the news. After Chevron’s announcement in August, posts about corporate relocations to Texas spiked to ~88% of the July spike in reaction to Musk’s announcement. PeakMetrics also found that the social media conversation on corporate moves to Texas is once again picking up steam over the past few days, largely driven by reactions to comments from Andy Walz, Chevron's president of Americas products, calling California a “tough place to do business.” 

Decipher:

While originally reported in high-trust outlets such as CBS News and Fox Business, Chevron’s announcement has more recently been amplified by more fringe partisan outlets such as The Daily Caller on August 9th. Companies need to follow these types of narratives to track how their official comments may jump from mainstream to more polarizing news outlets and online spaces. 

PeakMetrics detected a clear distinction in the initial narratives between Musk and Chevron’s decisions to leave California for Texas. 

Chevron’s initial announcement on leaving California was framed around the appeal of Texas’ business-friendly environment, in contrast to Elon Musk’s announcement on moving X/SpaceX in reaction to a new California law concerning the privacy of LGBTQ+ kids. 

Defend:

With these corporate announcements over the past month, Texas may be looking to draw other corporate headquarters by projecting narratives about the state’s business-friendly environment. But what other polarizing narratives have cropped up along these corporate decisions to watch out for? Namely, a resurgence of posts about “Texit” on social media. 

Compared to the day before each announcement, posts mentioning “Texit” or Texas secession rose 82% after Musk’s corporate announcement and 500% after Chevron’s announcement. Other companies eyeing a move to Texas will need to monitor narratives around Texit to avoid embroiling their company in this contentious issue. 

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