Texas Senate: Musk PAC spends $76 million in final push
The donation makes Elon Musk the largest individual donor in the midterms, with nearly half of the PAC's cycle spending targeted at James Talarico.
By Valentina Cruz ·
Elon Musk has funded the largest individual political campaign in this midterm cycle. On Thursday evening, his personal committee, America PAC, filed a pre-election report with the Federal Election Commission showing it received more than $76 million during the first two weeks of October.
The influx of cash marks a sharp increase in activity for the final stretch of the race. Musk has contributed over $445 million to Republican political groups since the start of the cycle. Of that total, more than $165 million has flowed into America PAC since July. This new deposit brings the committee's cash reserves to nearly $47 million after it spent nearly $43 million in the same two-week period.
The Texas Senate contest consumed the bulk of the recent expenditure. The PAC allocated $15.2 million to the state, double its summer spending there. Breakdowns in the filing show $12.4 million went to attacking Democratic candidate James Talarico and $2.8 million to promoting Republican Ken Paxton. Subsequent daily filings reveal another $9.1 million directed against Talarico, raising the PAC's total opposition spending to nearly $28 million. That figure represents roughly 40 percent of all money the group has spent on candidates this cycle.
The committee also shifted its media strategy toward digital platforms. It spent $11.4 million on online ads in the two-week window, a figure close to its combined spending on mail and texting. Musk has also used his X account to pressure the race. On Wednesday, he wrote that there is something deeply wrong with Talarico and claimed the candidate would vote to take away kids and transition them. He had previously amplified a false claim that Talarico received treatment at a mental health facility.
Talarico responded on the same day, stating that there is something deeply wrong with a system that allows one trillionaire to buy his own personal US Senator. The race remains statistically tied. An Emerson College poll of 1,000 likely voters, conducted from October 17 to 19, placed Talarico at 48 percent and Paxton at 46 percent, within the three-point margin of error.
The outcome of the Senate seat carries implications beyond state politics. If Democrats win the House, committee chairs have signaled they will investigate Musk's role in the Department of Government Efficiency and the federal contracts held by his companies. California Representative Zoe Lofgren described the number of conflicts of interest as astounding. A group of Silicon Valley Democrats, including Representatives Sam Liccardo, Jimmy Panetta, and Ro Khanna, sent a letter to the White House demanding an investigation. They argued that the next Congress will closely scrutinize federal funding awarded to Musk's businesses, specifically citing restrictions on SpaceX's Starshield service in Ukraine.
Source: Wired
