Musk Moves $76 Million to America PAC Ahead of Texas Senate Vote

Elon Musk transferred more than $76 million to his political committee, America PAC, during the first two weeks of October. The donation was reported in a pre-election filing with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday evening. The committee is working to assist Republican candidates in the final stretch of the midterm campaign.

The Texas Senate race consumed the majority of the new spending. America PAC allocated $15.2 million to that contest, double the amount spent there over the entire summer. Of that total, $12.4 million supported attacks on Democratic candidate James Talarico, while $2.8 million promoted Republican candidate Ken Paxton. Daily filings show an additional $9.1 million directed against Talarico since the initial report. This brings the PAC’s total spending against the Democrat this cycle to nearly $28 million, roughly 40 percent of all funds deployed to support or oppose candidates.

The committee also shifted its advertising strategy. It spent $11.4 million on digital ads in the two-week window, a figure close to its combined spending on mail and texting. The PAC held almost $47 million in cash on hand after spending nearly $43 million in the same period. According to an analysis of Federal Election Commission filings, Musk has given more than $445 million to Republican political groups this election cycle. This makes him the largest known individual donor in the midterms, with more than $165 million going to America PAC since July.

Musk has also intervened in the race through social media. On Wednesday, he wrote on X that there is something deeply wrong with Talarico. He called the candidate a creep and claimed without evidence that Talarico would vote to take away children and transition them. Earlier in the month, Musk amplified a false claim that Talarico had been treated at a mental health facility. Talarico responded the same day, stating that there is something deeply wrong with a political system that allows one trillionaire to buy his own personal U.S. senator.

The race remains competitive. An Emerson College poll of 1,000 likely Texas voters, conducted from October 17 to 19, placed Talarico at 48 percent and Paxton at 46 percent. The difference is within the poll’s 3-point margin of error. The outcome carries financial implications for Musk beyond the state. 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.

Silicon Valley Democrats have also identified a line of scrutiny regarding 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 stated that the next Congress will closely scrutinize federal funding awarded to Musk’s businesses.