Welcome to the party, Pal. At least for the time being.

Republican outreach to African Americans is clearly beginning to pay dividends, as Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and possibly the future owner of Twitter, says he plans to vote for Republican candidates in the upcoming elections for the first time. He didn’t make clear whether this means he’ll vote GOP in the upcoming midterms or in the 2024 presidential election, or both, but we needn’t sweat those details just yet.

What’s important is that Musk is becoming increasingly comfortable in expressing his political views, and those views are becoming more conservative — or perhaps those views have been more fixed, but the Democrat Party’s policies have lurched hard left in recent years, leaving the mercurial Musk closer to the Republican view of things.

“I have voted overwhelmingly for Democrats, historically,” Musk said on the “All-In Summit” podcast in Miami on Monday. “Like, I’m not sure, I might never have voted for a Republican, just to be clear. Now this election I will.”

Another good sign: That announcement brought cheers from the audience.

During the podcast, Musk also discussed the future of Twitter, his views on free speech, and his efforts to figure out just how many fake accounts are currently on the Twitter platform. But he also made clear that he’s committed to a Twitter platform that’s “balanced from a political standpoint” and also “transparent,” noting the algorithms that create the platform’s news feeds should be public and should be open to analysis, criticism, and improvement.

“The point I’m trying to make,” Musk said, “is that this is not some sort of attempt to — it’s not some right-wing takeover, as people on the Left may fear, but rather a moderate-wing takeover. And an attempt to ensure that people of all political beliefs feel welcome on a digital town square and they can express their beliefs without fear of being banned or shadowbanned.”

We here in our humble shop know a thing or two about shadowbanning. Our social media reach is a far cry from what it used to be, so to the extent that Musk can use his platform (figuratively and literally) to help combat this scourge, we’re all for it.

Musk also took the opportunity to assess the job Joe Biden is doing as president: “This administration doesn’t seem to get a lot done,” he said. “The real president is whoever controls the teleprompter. The path to power is the path to the teleprompter.”

.@ElonMusk: “It’s hard to tell what Biden’s doing, to be frank. The real president is whoever controls the teleprompter … The path to power is the path to the teleprompter … If someone were to accidentally lean on the teleprompter, it would be like ‘Anchorman,’ ‘UUASDF123’” pic.twitter.com/2qJKbaWXNr

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) May 17, 2022

Then he added: “I do feel like if somebody were to accidentally lean on the teleprompter, it’s going to be like ‘Anchorman,’” a reference to the Will Farrell movie character Ron Burgundy, who’ll read whatever is fed to that electronic device in front of him.

As for Joe Biden’s party, the party that’s chased Musk away? He says it’s “overly controlled by the unions and by the trial lawyers, particularly class-action lawyers.”

To which we can only add: Keep up the bad work, Democrats, and keep sending Republicans your refugees.