If you follow automotive creators on Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube, you may have noticed a trend recently: Videos about a Biden-Harris ICE “gas car ban,” set to kick in by 2032 and instantly cull all enthusiast vehicles from American roads. None of these videos are particularly good at representing the truth of the situation, but they’re very good at providing insight into something else — the political stance of SEMA.
Each of those videos you’ve seen is paid for by an organization called Driving Force Action, which positions itself as a grassroots group of “gearheads, and small automotive businesses fighting to defend our freedom to ride.” In reality, however, Driving Force is a tax-exempt Super PAC put together by SEMA with the express purpose of pushing back against emissions regulations — and funding extremist politicians to do so.
SEMA founded Driving Force in Virginia last year, where the organization got its start backing governor Glenn Youngkin as he disentangled the state’s emissions regulations from those of California — something SEMA called a “significant victory.” Youngkin also spent that time repealing COVID measures, setting up a snitch line for parents to complain about history being taught in schools, and waging war against his state’s trans children, but hey! At least SEMA got its way on auto emissions!
Driving Force has now turned that focus to the national stage, where the PAC has spent $44,000 so far this election cycle running ads that bash this mythical ICE ban. Even the organization’s own videos, which lead with clickbait headlines like “The Biden-Harris administration is trying to ban all gas vehicles by 2032,” admit that the law in question is simply a tightening of emissions restrictions — which, notably, would not affect the preexisting shitboxes about which their host seems so concerned.
The PAC is entirely funded by SEMA, to the tune of $148,333 so far this election cycle, and doesn’t seem interested in smaller donors. Like many anti-environmental efforts, it has well-funded backers, and doesn’t need to rely on the goodwill or enthusiasm of regular people to get its way. It’s also not the only political spending SEMA has made recently — just this morning, while writing this post, the organization announced it had filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court against California’s emissions laws.
SEMA is increasingly making itself a big political spender, and it’s using the faux-grassroots organization Driving Force to launder its ideals — higher profit for its ICE-focused member companies — through the lens of a commitment to automotive enthusiasm. Enthusiasts, however, will be just fine in the electric era. SEMA, and Driving Force, don’t speak for us.
