Musk Injects $76 Million Into GOP Midterm Push

Elon Musk funneled more than $76 million into his personal political action committee, America PAC, during the first two weeks of October. The transfer, detailed in a pre-election report filed with the Federal Election Commission, is designed to boost Republican candidates as the midterm contests enter their final phase.

The PAC spent nearly $43 million in that same two-week period. It currently holds close to $47 million in cash heading into the campaign's closing stretch.

Spending in Texas was a major focus for the organization. The committee allocated $15.2 million to the state's Senate race, a figure that doubles what America PAC spent there throughout the entire summer. That money funded $12.4 million in efforts to attack Democratic candidate James Talarico and $2.8 million to promote Republican Ken Paxton.

Daily filings released since then indicate an additional $9.1 million has been directed against Talarico. This brings the total spent against him this cycle to nearly $28 million, which represents about 40 percent of all spending by America PAC to support or oppose candidates.

The group has also shifted its strategy toward online platforms. Digital ads received $11.4 million over the first two weeks of October, an amount close to what the PAC spent on direct mail and texting combined.

Overall, Musk has contributed more than $445 million to Republican political groups for this election cycle. Analysis of FEC filings shows that total makes him the largest known individual donor in the midterms, with over $165 million going to America PAC since July. The committee declined to comment on the filing.

Musk, who owns companies including Tesla and SpaceX based in Texas, has publicly criticized Talarico online. On Wednesday, Musk posted on X that "there is something deeply wrong with Talarico" and labeled him "a creep." He also made an unsupported claim that Talarico "would vote to take away your kids and transition them." Earlier in the month, Musk shared a false claim regarding Talarico's medical history. Talarico responded immediately: "There is something deeply wrong with a political system that allows one trillionaire to buy his own personal US Senator."

The Texas Senate race remains a toss-up. An Emerson College survey conducted October 17 to 19 with 1,000 likely Texas voters showed Talarico at 48 percent and Paxton at 46 percent, a difference within the poll's 3-point margin of error.

The consequences of these races reach beyond individual seats. If Democrats take control of the House, committee leaders plan to investigate Musk's involvement with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and his companies' federal contracts. Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat, has referred to the "astounding" number of conflicts of interest in this area.

On Friday, three Silicon Valley Democrats requested an investigation into restrictions on SpaceX's Starshield satellite service in Ukraine. In a letter to the White House, Representatives Sam Liccardo, Jimmy Panetta, and Ro Khanna stated that the next Congress "will closely scrutinize federal funding awarded to Mr. Musk's businesses."