Musk Injects $76 Million Into Midterms as Texas Fight Intensifies

Elon Musk has moved another $76 million into his personal political committee, America PAC, during the first half of October. This significant injection of capital arrives as the group works to support Republican candidates in the final weeks of the midterm elections. The figures were revealed in a pre-election report filed with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday evening.

According to the same filing, the group spent nearly $43 million during that two-week period. It enters the final stretch of the campaign with almost $47 million in cash remaining. This financial firepower is being directed at key battlegrounds, with the Texas Senate race absorbing the bulk of the new outlays.

The PAC poured $15.2 million into the Texas contest, a sum that is double what it spent there over the entire summer. Of that total, $12.4 million was used to attack Democratic candidate James Talarico, while $2.8 million went toward promoting Republican Ken Paxton. Daily filings submitted after the initial report show an additional $9.1 million directed against Talarico. This brings the group's total spending against the Democrat this cycle to nearly $28 million, which accounts for roughly 40 percent of all its expenditures supporting or opposing candidates.

The strategy also marks a shift toward digital platforms. The group spent $11.4 million on online ads in the two-week window. This amount is close to what it spent on mail and texting combined. According to an analysis of FEC filings by WIRED, Musk has now given more than $445 million to Republican political groups this election cycle. This makes him the largest known individual donor in the midterms. More than $165 million of that total has gone to America PAC since July alone. The PAC declined to comment on the new numbers.

Musk, whose companies including Tesla and SpaceX have major operations in Texas, has also been vocal on social media regarding the race. On Wednesday, he posted on X that there is something deeply wrong with Talarico. He called the candidate a creep and claimed, without provided evidence, that Talarico would vote to take away your kids and transition them. Earlier this month, he amplified a false claim that Talarico had been treated at a mental health facility.

Talarico responded to the criticism the same day. He stated, There is something deeply wrong with a political system that allows one trillionaire to buy his own personal US Senator. The contest remains a toss-up. An Emerson College poll of 1,000 likely Texas voters, conducted October 17 to 19, placed Talarico at 48 percent and Paxton at 46 percent. This is within the poll's 3-point margin of error.

The stakes for Musk extend well beyond the Texas Senate seat. If Democrats win the House, the lawmakers in line to chair its committees have signaled they will investigate Musk's role in the Department of Government Efficiency. They also plan to look into the federal contracts held by his companies. California Democrat Zoe Lofgren described the number of conflicts of interest as astounding. Democratic control of both chambers of Congress would create even more difficulties for the billionaire.

Silicon Valley Democrats have identified a further area of scrutiny: restrictions on 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 said the next Congress will closely scrutinize federal funding awarded to Mr. Musk's businesses.