Reported by The Guardian
The tech billionaire set spending record as he poured $446m into campaigns for failed Republican candidates
Elon Musk set a record for election spending this year after pouring nearly half a billion dollars into backing Republicans in the US midterm elections . It turned out to be a poor investment.
The SpaceX and Tesla CEO contributed at least $446m to Republican-aligned Super Pacs and groups over the course of the elections, specifically targeting several key Senate races in an effort to help the Trump administration retain Republican control of Congress. He outdid his own 2024 spending of nearly $290m. Yet as Democrats swept to power across the country on Tuesday night, it became clear that Musk would get nearly nothing in return for his hundreds of millions in spending.
More from the original report
Democrats won every one of the five Senate races where Musk’s America Pac spent the most money backing Republican candidates. In Texas, where Musk’s empire is based and where he directed most of his political efforts, Republicans lost the Senate race , governor’s office and are expected to relinquish control of the state house.
After months of Musk posting attacks on Democrats and amplifying election conspiracy theories on X, the tech mogul was unusually quiet on election night. He jokingly posted “Data centers in space looking pretty appealing right now,” but the top Republican mega-donor was otherwise largely silent on the results.
Musk’s losses from midterms go beyond the enormous sums that he dumped into failed campaigns, however, potentially ending an era of lax regulation and cozy relations with state officials that has benefitted his companies. The world’s richest person will soon face a House, Senate and Texas government filled with Democrats that have vowed to take a tougher stance on tech and specifically scrutinize his operations in particular.
Altogether, Musk’s political spending this midterms flowed into at least eight Republican-aligned Super Pacs that targeted races across the country, with the largest donation of at least $216m going into his own America Pac. He also gave $168m to the Senate Leadership Fund, which backed a series of candidates that included the…