Musk Pumps $76 Million Into GOP Campaigns

Elon Musk has personally funneled over $76 million into his political committee, America PAC, during the first two weeks of October to bolster Republican candidates for the final push of the midterm elections. A pre-election report filed with the FEC on Thursday confirmed this significant cash infusion aimed at influencing voter behavior in the closing days of the campaign.

While the committee raised this large sum, it also spent nearly $43 million in that same two-week window, leaving it with nearly $47 million in cash on hand as the election approaches. The primary focus of this spending has been the Texas Senate race, which received $15.2 million in support. This amount is double what the PAC had spent on the contest throughout the entire summer, with $12.4 million allocated to attack Democratic candidate James Talarico and $2.8 million to support Republican Ken Paxton.

The committee's opposition to Talarico has been a central theme of its spending. Daily filings show an additional $9.1 million spent against him, bringing the total spent on opposing his candidacy this cycle to nearly $28 million. This figure represents about 40 percent of the PAC's total spending on supporting or opposing candidates. The committee has also shifted its strategy toward digital ads, spending $11.4 million on online advertising in the same two-week period, a figure close to what it spent on combined mail and texting efforts.

In total, Musk has contributed more than $445 million to Republican political groups for this election cycle, according to an analysis of FEC filings, establishing him as the largest known individual donor in the midterms. More than $165 million of that total has been directed to America PAC since July alone.

Musk has also been vocal online regarding the Texas race. On Wednesday, he posted on X, stating, “there is something deeply wrong with Talarico,” and called him “a creep.” He further claimed, without providing evidence, that Talarico “would vote to take away your kids and transition them.” Earlier in the month, Musk shared a false claim that Talarico had been treated at a mental health facility. Talarico responded the same day, stating, “There is something deeply wrong with a political system that allows one trillionaire to buy his own personal US Senator.”

Despite the heavy spending, the Texas race remains competitive. An Emerson College poll of 1,000 likely Texas voters, conducted October 17 to 19, showed Talarico with 48 percent support and Paxton with 46 percent, a difference within the poll's 3-point margin of error.

The potential consequences of this election cycle extend beyond the outcome in Texas. If Democrats secure a majority in the House, lawmakers positioned to lead its committees have indicated plans to investigate Musk's 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. Democratic control of both chambers of Congress would create further complications for him.

On Friday, Silicon Valley Democrats introduced another potential issue for scrutiny: restrictions on SpaceX's Starshield satellite service in Ukraine. In a letter to the White House requesting an investigation, Representatives Sam Liccardo, Jimmy Panetta, and Ro Khanna stated that the next Congress “will closely scrutinize federal funding awarded to Mr. Musk’s businesses.”