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Who is Chris Young, the Republican operative who advises Elon Musk?

Elon Musk has hired a powerful Republican operative as a political guide, suggesting the billionaire tech founder plans to become even more entrenched in the 2024 election, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

Musk has tapped Chris Young, a GOP adviser specializing in field operations and get-out-the-vote efforts, to guide his growing political involvement and strategic use of his $240 billion fortune, according to the publication.

Neither Young nor Musk immediately responded to Business Insider’s request for comment.

Young’s expertise in organizing the field makes him a desirable power player for Musk, who has similarly focused on mobilizing voters in recent months. The founder of Tesla and SpaceX recently suggested that mobilizing voters is more important than online advertising.

The new hire comes as Musk’s super PAC, America PAC, restarts its outreach program ahead of November. Young is expected to play a key role in the PAC, which is refocusing on Republican turnout after a rocky start, The Times reported.

Young has been a staple of GOP politics for more than a decade. In 2011, he worked as a field operator for Gov. Bobby Jindal in his home state of Louisiana before serving as a coordinator for the Nevada Republican National Committee the following year, Nola.com reported. In 2014, he was named the first GOP state director for Louisiana, where he focused on field operations.

Young climbed the ladder of Republican politics, eventually becoming a field operator for the RNC during the 2016 election cycle, The Times reported. He also had a stint at the helm of Engage Texas, a nonprofit focused on voter registration that is funded by Republican donors, according to the publication.

Most recently, Young served as a senior policy official at PhRMA, the trade association representing the pharmaceutical industry that advocates on behalf of companies such as Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson.

During the RNC earlier this year, Young attended a dinner for GOP elites, including former Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Donald Trump Jr., Punchbowl News reported.

Donor advisers like Young play an important role in politics: they both guard and guide money. The super-rich typically hire them to help direct donations and long-term political plans.

With the new hire, Musk, who insisted in 2015 that he “gets as little involved in politics as possible,” further cements himself in the political orbit and exacerbates the tech world’s partisan rift.

Now guided by an experienced operative rather than his own whims, Musk may be more easily able to settle for the mainstream political orbit he once rejected.

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