Musk Spends Millions on Texas Senate

Elon Musk has poured over $76 million into the midterm elections during the first two weeks of October. This significant financial move aims to support Republican candidates in the final stretch before voting ends. The funds were directed to his personal political committee, known as America PAC. The group filed a report with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday evening detailing this latest wave of spending.

The committee used nearly $43 million of that total amount during the two-week period. It now holds close to $47 million in cash as the campaign enters its last phase. The Texas Senate race absorbed the largest share of these new funds. The PAC spent $15.2 million specifically on this contest. This figure is double the amount the group spent on the Texas race throughout the entire summer.

Most of the Texas spending targeted the Democratic candidate, James Talarico. The PAC allocated $12.4 million to attack his campaign. Another $2.8 million was used to promote the Republican candidate, Ken Paxton. Subsequent daily filings indicate that another $9.1 million was spent against Talarico after the initial report. This brings the total spending against him this cycle to nearly $28 million. That sum represents about 40 percent of everything the PAC has spent on candidates so far.

The PAC also changed its advertising strategy in recent weeks. It spent $11.4 million on digital ads during the same two-week window. This amount is nearly equal to what the group spent on mail and text messaging combined. Musk has donated more than $445 million to Republican political groups this election cycle. This makes him the largest known individual donor in the midterms. Of that total, over $165 million has gone to America PAC since July.

The group did not respond to requests for comment. Musk has also been active online regarding the Texas race. On Wednesday, he posted on X that there is something deeply wrong with Talarico. He described the candidate as a creep. He also claimed without evidence that Talarico would vote to take away children and transition them. Earlier in the month, Musk shared a false claim that Talarico had been treated at a mental health facility.

Talarico reacted quickly to that earlier claim. He stated that 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 close contest. An Emerson College poll of 1,000 likely voters conducted from October 17 to 19 shows Talarico at 48 percent. Paxton trails at 46 percent. The difference is within the poll’s three-point margin of error.

The outcome of these midterms matters to Musk for reasons beyond the Senate. If Democrats gain control of the House, leaders have signaled they will investigate his role in the Department of Government Efficiency. They also plan to look into federal contracts held by his companies. Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat from California, described the number of potential conflicts of interest as astounding. Full Democratic control of Congress would create even more challenges for him.

Silicon Valley Democrats added another target on Friday. They sent a letter to the White House demanding an investigation into SpaceX’s Starshield satellite service in Ukraine. Representatives Sam Liccardo, Jimmy Panetta, and Ro Khanna signed the letter. They vowed that the next Congress will closely scrutinize federal funding awarded to Mr. Musk’s businesses.