Elon Musk’s political operation is focused on the most consequential races of the midterm elections, according to a WIRED analysis of federal campaign finance data.
As of October 6, America PAC, the main Musk-affiliated super PAC, had deployed $21 million of the $26.7 million it has spent on this year’s races into seven key US Senate contests that are widely seen as close—if not toss-ups—and represent a path for Democrats to take control of the chamber this November.
To monitor America PAC’s spending in the midterms, WIRED has created a live tracker that updates daily and highlights where America PAC is putting money into the midterms, from individual races to Musk’s overall influence on the election season. It draws on America PAC’s filings with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), which the agency processes daily and which lists all the payments America PAC has made for ads, mailers, and texts.
America PAC is smaller, and aimed differently, than it was two years ago. America PAC registered with the FEC in May 2024 and spent $261 million that cycle, with about 95 percent of its funding coming from Musk. The $26.7 million it has spent so far this year is about a third of the $85.9 million it had spent by the same point in 2024, when more than 90 percent of that money went to the presidential race and almost none to Senate races.
For this election cycle, most of America PAC’s spending has been concentrated on financing campaign efforts attacking Democrats, WIRED’s review shows. For every dollar spent supporting a Republican candidate, more than two went to opposing a Democrat, as of October 6. In Senate races, it was three.
The political stakes are especially high for Republicans this November because of the possibility of Democrats taking the majority in the US Senate, should the party flip four battleground races and retain three of the Senate seats it currently holds. The implications of a Democratic-controlled Senate would also be far-reaching for Musk in particular, who could become the target of congressional investigations, while his companies might be affected by bills related to tech and AI regulation.
In the most fraught Senate races, where the GOP has been on the back foot, the ratio of negative to positive campaign messaging has been even more skewed, the filings show.
For the Senate race in Texas, where Musk lives and where his companies Tesla and SpaceX are based, the group has spent more than $7.6 million on ads opposing Democratic candidate James Talarico and $1.1 million backing Republican candidate and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. In part due to a litany of past scandals, including a federal investigation into alleged misuse of office, which the Department of Justice closed without any charges brought against him, Paxton has trailed Talarico in every public poll since the middle of August. The most recent poll of registered voters by Marist University places Talarico 6 points ahead.
The largest single expenditures by America PAC in Texas have been two $1.3 million digital media buys opposing Talarico. Most of the rest of the money has gone to paying for printed materials, postage, and campaign calls. America PAC has not put any money into television ads, which is being handled by other outside groups.
In Iowa, the PAC has spent 14 times more money attacking Democrat Josh Turek than it has backing Republican Ashley Hinson. More than three-quarters of all Senate spending so far has gone to defending seats Republicans already hold.
Even in races where the disparity has been lower—for instance, in the Ohio Senate race—America PAC has spent double the amount attacking former Democratic senator Sherrod Brown as defending the record of incumbent Jon Husted.
Husted has faced a particularly bruising campaign, dogged by his support for the Iran war and battered by negative ads portraying him as “the face of data centers” because of a planned Nvidia data center project in the state that will be leased by OpenAI.
More generally, WIRED’s review of the filings submitted to the FEC shows that America PAC has spent more than $83 million boosting Republican candidates and causes since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term.
More than half of that figure came in the first six months of 2025, including nearly $13 million on the Wisconsin Supreme Court race that the GOP lost—Musk had claimed the future of “Western civilization” was on the line—and $27 million on petition incentives. Prior to the election, America PAC posted on social media that it would pay people $100 to sign the petition and $100 per referral for that race. (Voting officials in the state alleged probable cause to believe that Musk’s offers of $1 million payments had violated election bribery laws, but prosecutors ultimately declined to bring charges.)
In between Musk’s public fallout with Trump last year and his return to politics this summer, the outflows from America PAC largely went quiet. Musk’s own checkbook did not. Between June 2025 and May 2026, he personally gave $40 million to other Republican groups.
And since late August, America PAC has whirred back into gear, throwing $11.2 million into the Texas Senate race and about $5 million each into the Ohio and Michigan Senate races, as well as $10.2 million in other House and Senate contests.
It isn’t clear yet how much America PAC has put into field operations and other get-out-the-vote efforts this year, though future filings will shed light on this. Nor is it clear who is paying for the surge. The group reported $274,171 in the bank at the end of June and has spent $31 million since; the donors behind the difference will not be disclosed until its next report, October 15. Through June, virtually all of its money had come from Musk. A spokesperson for the super PAC declined to comment.
Additional reporting by Dhruv Mehotra and Maddy Varner.
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