Musk’s millions can’t jazz up Republicans as US sings the blues

Elon Musk poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the Republican campaign. Democrats countered with billionaire backers of their own and candidates who raised substantially more than their opponents. In the battle for Congress, both sides had money to spend. Republicans’ defeat showed what even an enormous financial effort could not guarantee.OpenSecrets’ pre-election tally put Musk’s contributions to federal political committees at $445 million, including $215 million to America PAC, the group he established, and $168 million to the Senate Leadership Fund, which backs Republican Senate candidates.Musk was the biggest donor, but the Republican funding network extended across technology, finance and other industries. A Brennan Center analysis, using disclosures through June, put venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz’s contributions to boost Republicans at $115 million. By mid-October, the 40 biggest donors had contributed $2.4 billion. Those supporting Republicans supplied more than three times as much as donors backing Democrats.Democrats had a different financial advantage. OpenSecrets projected Democratic congressional candidates would spend more than $2.2 billion, compared with approximately $1.4 billion for Republicans. Its October 30 tally of outside spending showed the reverse: conservative groups had spent over $2 billion, against $1.7 billion for liberal groups.Democrats also drew on substantial private fortunes. Soros-linked organisations Geosor Corp and Fund for Policy Reform together contributed more than $102 million to liberal groups, while Michael Bloomberg’s contributions exceeded $100 million during the cycle.LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and his wife, Michelle Yee, contributed $41 million to Democratic-aligned groups.OpenAI president Greg Brockman and his wife, Anna, contributed $25 million to Trump-aligned MAGA Inc. and another $25 million to Leading the Future, an AI-focused political group.Those were personal contributions. Google, Meta and other technology interests also targeted state legislatures, where decisions on AI and data centres could affect their businesses.You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.