Elon Musk began a political advertising blitz on Tuesday in three states that could decide control of the Senate, as his political group began attacking Democrats over transgender issues by accusing them of allowing men to compete in women’s sports.
The spots from Mr. Musk’s group, America PAC, target three top Democratic nominees for Senate: James Talarico in Texas, Sherrod Brown in Ohio and Josh Turek in Iowa.
The ads provide an early glimpse at the role that America PAC is carving out for itself in the midterm elections, in which Republicans find themselves in danger of losing control of the Senate and the House. Mr. Musk is expected to extend some of the party’s candidates a lifeline of at least $100 million, all told.
In Texas, Mr. Musk’s group targeted Mr. Talarico, a state representative who is seeking to become the first Democrat to win a Senate seat in that state since 1988. He is locked in a tight race against Ken Paxton, the Republican state attorney general.
The 30-second ad opens with a video clip of Mr. Talarico saying that “God is nonbinary,” a comment that Mr. Talarico suggested to CBS News in May had “missed the mark.”
“James Talarico believes there are six genders,” the ad’s narrator says. “Talarico voted to let men play women’s sports and for taxpayer-funded sex changes on kids.”
The Talarico campaign disputed those claims, saying that Mr. Talarico did not support gender-reassignment surgery for minors and had tried working with Republicans to amend a “flawed” bill barring transgender children from participating in sports of the opposite genders.
“Billionaire-backed dark money groups are lying about James Talarico because they’re scared of the people-powered movement we’re building to fix this broken, corrupt political system,” said JT Ennis, a spokesman for the Talarico campaign.
Mr. Musk is reprising his efforts to bolster Republicans, as he did during the 2024 election, when he spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars in support of Donald J. Trump and the party’s candidates.
That alliance appeared to be uncertain after Mr. Musk publicly criticized Mr. Trump, who chose Mr. Musk to lead the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, the cost-cutting initiative that aimed to cut the size of the federal work force, at the beginning of Mr. Trump’s second term. But in recent months, Mr. Musk has signaled that he is back on board with Republicans.
In Ohio, Mr. Musk deployed a similar line of attack against Mr. Brown, a Democrat who is trying to mount a comeback after losing his Senate seat in 2024. Mr. Brown is in a tight race against Senator Jon Husted, who was appointed to fill the Senate seat of JD Vance when he left to become vice president.
“Two years ago, we fired Sherrod Brown because Brown put the trans agenda ahead of Ohio’s values,” the ad’s narrator says.
Patrick Eisenhauer, Mr. Brown’s campaign manager, said in a statement on Tuesday that “billionaires are lying to try and bail out” Mr. Husted.
In 2024, state lawmakers in Ohio upheld a law barring transition care for minors. The law also prohibits transgender girls and women from competing in girls and women’s sports from kindergarten through 12th grade and at the collegiate level.
In Iowa, Mr. Turek, a Democratic state legislator who is running against Ashley Hinson, a three-term Republican congresswoman, in another high-stakes Senate race, is also in the sights of Mr. Musk.
“Josh Turek voted to spend our tax dollars on sex-change surgeries for children,” the ad’s narrator says.
The claim echoed a line of attack from a campaign ad for Ms. Hinson, which the fact-checking outlet PolitiFact found in June to be a distortion of Mr. Turek’s record on transition care.
“Josh opposes taxpayer-funded sex changes, and anyone who says otherwise is lying,” said Hannah Goss, a spokeswoman for the Turek campaign.
Theodore Schleifer contributed reporting.
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