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Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry shoots his shot with Elon Musk to net Twitter headquarters to city

From Dubai to Jacksonville, leaders across the world are courting Elon Musk to score Twitter headquarters. No one's going harder than Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The video attached to this story is from a related report by the Associated Press.

Looks like Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry has a new dream. 

Tuesday, news broke that Musk, CEO of Tesla and the world's richest person, had purchased Twitter for roughly $44 billion.

In a now-deleted tweet, Musk previously disparaged Twitter's San Francisco office, polling his followers to vote on "turning (the office) into a homeless shelter." Over 90% of 1,900,388 voters were for it.

That comment, plus Musk moving Tesla headquarters from California to Texas last year, seems to be giving people the idea that Twitter HQ could be on the move.

When Musk's acquisition of the social media site became official (as official as it can get as Musk reviews the company's finances, which isn't expected to pose a problem), political leaders from all over the United States started tugging at Musk's sleeve, asking him to settle in their states. 

Enter Florida. 

Florida Chief Financial Officer and Fire Marshal Jimmy Patronis made his move, tweeting at Elon and asking him to move to Florida, which, according to him, is for winners.

Mayor Curry was quick to announce he wants to bring Twitter home and encourage Musk to move the social media platform's headquarters to Jacksonville. 

He first tweeted in response to a tweet Musk wrote in Latin. Celebrating his purchase: "Per aspera ad astra!" which roughly translates to "from difficulties to the stars!" 

Curry wrote back: "Visita nos et mane," Latin for "visit and stay." 

Next was a more formal request: Curry introduced himself and tweeted Elon that he agrees with Patronis, and further, Jacksonville would be a better opportunity than Los Angelas, Houston or Miami.

Around 11 p.m. Tuesday night, Curry seemed to be getting impatient for a response from Musk and gave him another shout out in Latin: "me voca quaeso," or "call me please," in English. 

As of Wednesday night, Curry doesn't seem to be letting it go, and Musk doesn't seem to have called him. Curry retweeted a Fox article about his earlier comments and added on his invite to Jacksonville still stands. Then he later, he criticized a New York Post article headlined "Red states lobby Elon Musk and Twitter to Flee California," saying his comments were not about politics and that he's happy to "go to war" on Twitter.

Curry and Patronis are far from the only ones vying for Musk's attention. He's getting requests from across the country.

Of course, his pals in Texas want him to keep doing business there. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted out "@elonmusk. Bring Twitter to Texas to join Tesla, SpaceX & the Boring company."

Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee offered her hand: "Elon should move Twitter HQ to the freedom-loving state of Tennessee!" 

West Virginia Sen. Martin Patrick Martin also entered the arena, saying in a news release that he thinks Musk would "find West Virginia to be a place that welcomes his plans for a new, truly free social media platform with open arms.”

Then Chris Stewart, US Rep. for Utah's 2nd district, chimed in: "Elon Musk acquiring Twitter is a big win for free speech. And @elonmusk, if you're looking for new Twitter headquarters, feel free to stop by Utah." 

Musk's suitors keep on lining up. We'll see if Curry gets that phone call. 

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