Musk midterm spending tops $442M

Tech billionaire Elon Musk has spent more than $442 million in the midterm elections, after pouring another $76.8 million into his super PAC over the past month, campaign finance filings show.

America PAC, which Musk launched during the 2024 elections, received the influx of cash from the SpaceX and Tesla CEO over the course of about a week in October, according to the super PAC’s last filing before the midterms.

This comes on top of the $366 million he had already spent so far on the upcoming elections. He gave a combined $276 million to his super PAC and various Republican groups in the three-month stretch between July and September alone.

Musk has spent heavily backing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) amid a tight race for the Lone Star state’s Senate seat against Democrat James Talarico.

He gave $158 million to the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC backing Republican Senate candidates, in two increments in September that were each disbursed to a Texas super PAC backing Paxton a day later.

Musk also gave $10 million to the Lone Star Liberty PAC, which is supporting Paxton, in addition to sending $20 million to a House GOP super PAC, $10 million to the Republican Governors Association and $2 million to the Republican Attorneys General Association.

The tech mogul’s massive campaign donations for Paxton drew scrutiny from his opponent, with Talarico accusing Musk on Wednesday of trying to “buy his own personal” senator.

“There is something deeply wrong with a political system that allows one trillionaire to buy his own personal U.S. Senator,” Talarico wrote on the social platform X, which Musk also owns.

Musk, the world’s richest man, is currently worth $909.8 billion, according to Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires list. He briefly became the world’s first trillionaire earlier this year, when SpaceX made its stock market debut with the biggest initial public offering (IPO) on record.

His spending this election cycle is well above the sum he spent in the 2024 elections, when Musk first jumped into the political world. After spending about $290 million backing President Trump and Republicans, he became a high-profile figure in the administration.

In the first few months of the administration, he led the controversial Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which oversaw sweeping cuts to the federal workforce and grants.

Musk ultimately left the administration in late May, shortly after which he engaged in a fierce public feud with Trump. He pulled back from the political sphere, later suggesting he “got carried away” and “a little too involved in politics.”

But he has increasingly appeared at high-profile events with the president in recent months, joining him on a state visit to China this spring alongside other tech executives. He also sat at Trump’s table at the state dinner with Chinese President Xi Jinping last month and received the National Medal of Science from the president earlier this month.