Musk's $76 Million Push Reshapes the Final Weeks of the Midterms
A massive new infusion of cash into America PAC signals an aggressive final push to secure Republican victories before voters head to the polls.
By Ivan Petrov ·
The final stretch of the midterms has been defined by a sudden and significant surge in financial support for Republican candidates.
Elon Musk transferred more than $76 million to his personal political committee, America PAC, during the first two weeks of October. According to a pre-election report filed with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday evening, this move aims to bolster the Republican effort in the closing days of the race.
The committee deployed nearly $43 million during that same two-week period. As the campaign enters its final leg, the group still holds almost $47 million in cash reserves, providing ample resources for continued advertising and outreach.
The Texas Senate race absorbed the largest share of these new funds, drawing $15.2 million. This amount is double what the PAC spent in that state throughout the summer. Of this total, $12.4 million was dedicated to attacking Democratic candidate James Talarico, while $2.8 million supported Republican Ken Paxton. Subsequent daily filings indicate that another $9.1 million has been spent against Talarico since the initial report. This brings the total spending against him this cycle to nearly $28 million, which represents about 40 percent of everything the PAC has spent supporting or opposing candidates.
The spending strategy has also shifted toward digital platforms. The PAC spent $11.4 million on online ads during the two-week window, a figure close to what it spent on mail and texting combined. Musk, who has companies including Tesla and SpaceX based in Texas, has also been active online regarding the race. On Wednesday, he posted on X that "there is something deeply wrong with Talarico," later calling him "a creep" and claiming without evidence that he "would vote to take away your kids and transition them." Earlier in the month, Musk amplified 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."
Altogether, Musk has given more than $445 million to Republican political groups this election cycle. Analysis of Federal Election Commission filings makes him the biggest known individual donor in the midterms. More than $165 million of that total has gone to America PAC since July alone. The committee declined to comment on the latest filings.
The Texas Senate race remains a toss-up. An Emerson College poll of 1,000 likely Texas voters, conducted from October 17 to 19, found Talarico at 48 percent and Paxton at 46 percent. The difference is within the poll's 3-point margin of error.
The stakes for Musk extend well beyond the Texas results. If Democrats win the House, committee leaders have signaled they will investigate his role in the Department of Government Efficiency, his companies' federal contracts, and what California Democrat Zoe Lofgren called an "astounding" number of conflicts of interest. Unified Democratic control of Congress would pose even greater challenges for him.
Silicon Valley Democrats added another target on Friday by focusing on restrictions for 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."
Source: Wired
