Elon Musk has quietly dumped more than $276 million into Republican groups and his own super PAC since the start of July, making the world’s richest man by far the largest known donor of the midterm elections.
Representatives for Musk supplied the previously unreported figures to the New York Times ahead of a federal filing deadline, showing the haul includes $158 million to the Senate Leadership Fund, the main super PAC backing GOP Senate candidates. That sum ranks among the largest political donations in American history and exceeds what the group’s Democratic rival raised from all of its donors last quarter.
Musk also gave more than $76 million to America PAC, the super PAC he founded in 2024, which has built a sprawling canvassing operation across seven Senate battlegrounds and nearly three dozen House races. Smaller checks went to the Congressional Leadership Fund ($20 million), the Republican Governors Association ($10 million), the Republican Attorneys General Association ($2 million) and Lone Star Liberty PAC ($10 million), a group backing Texas Senate nominee Ken Paxton.
Musk pledged to be less active in politics as he exited his role as a special government employee in May 2025 – “In terms of political spending, I’m going to do a lot less in the future,” he said at the time – but he has now given about $366 million to federal committees this cycle, more than the roughly $290 million he spent in 2024, plus additional undisclosed donations.
America PAC has spent more than a third of its disclosed budget in Texas, more than in any other race. Musk’s $10 million to the pro-Paxton group arrived while the embattled candidate was being badly outspent, and his $158 million gift to the Senate Leadership Fund came before the group abandoned months of reluctance and launched what has become a $149 million pro-Paxton ad campaign.
Paxton, as attorney general, has investigated Musk opponents such as Media Matters, and the tech baron has extensive business interests and property holdings in the state.
America PAC’s messaging leans heavily into the culture wars. Its top ad in Texas attacks Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico over past comments suggesting “God is nonbinary,” and door hangers claim he has a “radical trans agenda.” The Times found some of the group’s literature overstates Democrats’ positions or labels candidates socialists when they do not identify as such.
The canvassers delivering those messages earn as little as $1.50 per door, one told the Times. America PAC says it has knocked on about 6.5 million doors.
Musk appears less personally engaged than in 2024. People who have spoken with him say he rarely brings up the midterms, and he has posted on X just seven times this year about candidates in competitive races.
His super PAC, however, confirmed for the first time that it plans to remain active in the 2028 presidential election.
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