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Tulsa Goes All-Out in Bid to Land Elon Musk's New Tesla Factory

Tulsa is going wild for Tesla.

The city is reportedly competing with Austin, Texas, for the company’s new factory and 10,000 jobs, and its thirst was on full display Wednesday, as stadium video screens lit up with the Tesla logo, Tesla cars paraded through the city and officials unveiled what many had already seen: the 75-foot-tall Golden Driller with a red Tesla "T" emblazoned on his chest, a Tesla belt buckle and a mask of Elon Musk’s face plastered over his typically undefined features.

Rapper Danny Boy O’Connor, locally of "The Outsiders" movie fame, was on hand for official reveal.

"Will you look at this big, effing guy? I mean, come on. And Elon, we've got a big, effing field for you. Trust me when I tell you that, my friend," O'Connor said.

Before Tulsa was announced as a potential site last week, an online campaign with a name we can’t publish started making over-the-top pitches for Musk to come to Tulsa.

Mayor G.T. Bynum said the Golden Driller represents Tulsans' pioneering spirit and Tulsa is a city that reveres entrepreneurs.

"And today, in this era, our world has one great entrepreneur who's doing amazing things and is following that exact same spirit, who has identified that there are new fields of energy that can be harnessed," Bynum said.

The new Tesla factory will build the company's Cybertruck.

Image credit: Reddit user iZacJax92

Matt Trotter joined KWGS as a reporter in 2013. Before coming to Public Radio Tulsa, he was the investigative producer at KJRH. His freelance work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and on MSNBC and CNN.
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