Musk Floods Final Days With Millions, Putting Congressional Control in Play

Elon Musk has injected more than $76 million into his political action committee, America PAC, during the first two weeks of October, a move aimed at boosting Republican candidates as the midterm elections enter their final stretch. The funds were disclosed in a pre-election report the committee filed with the Federal Election Commission.

The spending is concentrated in the high-profile Texas Senate race, where $15.2 million has been deployed, a figure that doubles the total spent in that contest all summer. The bulk of that money, $12.4 million, was used to attack Democratic candidate James Talarico, while $2.8 million went to promote his Republican rival, Ken Paxton. This effort is part of a broader strategy that has seen the committee spend nearly $28 million against Talarico this cycle, representing about 40 percent of all its spending to support or oppose candidates. The committee has also shifted its focus toward online advertising, allocating $11.4 million to digital ads in the two-week period, a sum close to what it spent on mail and texting combined.

This latest contribution brings Musk's total political giving to Republican groups for this election cycle to more than $445 million, according to an analysis of FEC filings. This figure solidifies his position as the largest known individual donor in the midterms, with over $165 million of that sum going to America PAC since July. The committee, which declined to comment, has nearly $47 million in cash remaining.

Musk has been vocal in the Texas contest, where his companies, including Tesla and SpaceX, are based. He recently posted on X that there is something deeply wrong with Talarico, labeling him a creep and making an unsubstantiated claim about his policy positions. Talarico, in response, stated, "There is something deeply wrong with a political system that allows one trillionaire to buy his own personal US Senator."

The outcome of the race remains uncertain. A recent Emerson College poll of 1,000 likely Texas voters found Talarico at 48 percent and Paxton at 46 percent, a result within the poll's 3-point margin of error.

The implications of the election extend far beyond Texas. If Democrats secure a majority in the House of Representatives, committee leaders have signaled their intention to investigate Musk's role in the Department of Government Efficiency, his companies' federal contracts, and what Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat, described as an astounding number of conflicts of interest. Additionally, California Representatives Sam Liccardo, Jimmy Panetta, and Ro Khanna have requested an investigation into restrictions on SpaceX's Starshield satellite service in Ukraine, promising the next Congress will closely scrutinize federal funding awarded to Musk's businesses.