Musk Injects Millions Into Midterms
The billionaire donated over $76 million to his political committee during the first two weeks of October.
By Isabel Moretti ·
Elon Musk recently transferred more than $76 million into America PAC, the political organization he operates personally, to help Republican candidates in the final stretch of the midterms. The group disclosed the transaction in a pre-election report filed with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday evening.
America PAC has been active in spending, outlaying nearly $43 million during the first two weeks of October. Despite this activity, the committee still holds nearly $47 million in cash as the campaign enters its final leg.
Most of the recent funds were directed toward the Senate race in Texas, which received $15.2 million. This amount is double what the organization spent in that state throughout the summer. Within this allocation, $12.4 million was used to attack Democratic candidate James Talarico, while $2.8 million was spent promoting Republican Ken Paxton.
The committee has focused heavily on the Texas contest. Daily filings indicate an additional $9.1 million was spent against Talarico, bringing the total opposing him to nearly $28 million. This figure represents about 40 percent of the committee's total spending on supporting or opposing candidates. The organization also shifted toward online ads, spending $11.4 million on digital ads during the same two weeks, close to what it spent on mail and texting combined.
Overall, Musk has donated more than $445 million to Republican political groups for this election cycle, according to analysis of FEC filings, making him the largest known individual donor in the midterms. More than $165 million of that total has gone to America PAC since July alone. America PAC declined to comment on the report.
Musk, who operates several companies based in Texas, has also been posting online about the race. On Wednesday, Musk posted on X that “there is something deeply wrong with Talarico,” then called him “a creep” and claimed, without evidence, that “he would vote to take away your kids and transition them.” Earlier this month, Musk amplified a false claim that Talarico had been treated at a mental health facility. Talarico responded that day, saying: “There is something deeply wrong with a political system that allows one trillionaire to buy his own personal US Senator.”
The Texas race remains a toss-up. An Emerson College poll of 1,000 likely Texas voters, conducted October 17 to 19, found Talarico at 48 percent and Paxton at 46 percent, within the poll’s 3-point margin of error.
The stakes for Musk reach well beyond Texas. If Democrats win the House, lawmakers in line to lead its committees have signaled they will investigate his role in the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), his companies’ federal contracts, and what Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat, called an “astounding” number of conflicts of interest. Unified Democratic control of Congress would pose even more problems for him.
Silicon Valley Democrats added another target on Friday: restrictions on SpaceX’s Starshield satellite service in Ukraine. In a letter to the White House demanding an investigation, Representatives Sam Liccardo, Jimmy Panetta, and Ro Khanna vowed that the next Congress “will closely scrutinize federal funding awarded to Mr. Musk’s businesses.”
What happens next depends on the election outcome and the House investigations into Musk's businesses.
Source: Wired · original report published
