Electric cars have become a partisan punching bag like never before. Yet in 2025 they’re also more critical than ever to the future of American manufacturing. Something’s got to give.
Mike Murphy, a veteran Republican campaign strategist turned EV advocate, hopes to change hearts and minds before his party’s trifecta has the chance to torpedo landmark pro-EV policies and the investments they’ve seeded. As things stand today, though, he says the situation looks rather “grim.” He thinks EV subsidies like the $7,500 federal rebate for clean-car purchases are headed for the wood chipper.
“Right now, if you’re a Republican member of Congress and you vote against the consumer credits—the lease and purchase for EVs—you get a total pass from the voters,” Murphy, who runs the American EV Jobs Alliance, an advocacy group, said during an interview on InsideEVs’ Plugged-In Podcast last week. “If we don’t whip up trouble in the districts and create political pushback, it’s going to be a steamroller.”
On its face, this sounds preposterous. Why on Earth would lawmakers consider kneecapping manufacturing investments that directly benefit their constituents? After all, loans, grants and tax credits established by the 2021 Inflation Reduction Act kicked off an EV manufacturing and jobs boom in the U.S., primarily in red and purple states like Georgia, North Carolina and Michigan. The EV buying incentives that President Trump has threatened to kill fuel important demand for those battery and car plants.
The problem, according to Murphy’s polling, is that while readers of this publication probably know all of that, many voters have no idea. Or they don’t care.
Republicans spent big attacking EVs in places like Michigan, while Democrats did little to punch back. As a result, the sheer scale of potential EV jobs and investments announced since the passage of the IRA were “the best-kept secret of the presidential campaign,” Murphy said.
Rivian is building an EV plant in Georgia.
Plus, he said not enough voters get that China is way ahead of the U.S. on EVs and gobbling up market share around the world, largely due to aggressive government subsidies. (A third of Republican voters think the U.S. is the biggest car producer in the world, and only a third recognize that it’s actually China by far.) On top of all that, dumping on EVs has become a “tribal” issue for Republicans, since electric cars have come to symbolize the environmentalist movement.
“If Republicans see them not as cars but as dogma-signaling liberal mobiles, beating up on them as a Republican politician gets you applause,” he said. “And that’s where Trump is right now: Not seeing the bigger picture, and I think underestimating how important EVs are going to be in the world market in 15 years.”
Taken together, this means there’s zero “political pain” for lawmakers who move to gut the IRA, he said.
His organization wants to change that by launching a pressure campaign—focused on China and jobs issues—with the aim of turning a handful of representatives in key Republican districts. Privately, he says, members of Congress would love to protect proposed plants in their districts, but they’re also laser-focused on getting reelected.
“The average member of Congress is trying to survive the voters,” Murphy said. “Congressmen love to put on a hard hat and cut a big red ribbon. But on the other hand they don’t want a primary, and they don’t want the tribe to burn them alive.”
Hyundai Motor Group opened an EV and battery plant in Georgia called the Metaplant.
Aside from piling pressure on elected representatives, Murphy thinks getting the message to the president could do some good too.
After all, Trump says he’s all about revitalizing American manufacturing, and that’s what Biden-era EV policies are already doing—even if few Americans understand that. For example, the EV tax credit that’s been the target of so much vitriol only applies to cars built in North America without Chinese battery components.
Here is Murphy’s advice to companies looking to save pro-EV policies: “Make sure your lobbyists go to the White House with a beautiful picture book of all these new plants that are going to be built, or are under construction now, that Trump can go cut ribbons at and shamelessly claim credit for in 18 months to two years.”
“There’s a win here for Trump politically, but I don’t think he understands it,” he said.
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