Musk Doubles Down on Texas Senate Bid With Massive Late-Stage Spending Surge

Elon Musk has injected another $76 million into his personal political committee during the first half of October. This massive late-stage push aims to bolster Republican candidates as the midterm election approaches.

The funding surge was detailed in a pre-election report filed with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday evening. The document marks the most recent financial move by the billionaire in the current election cycle.

The committee allocated the bulk of these new funds to the Texas Senate race. It poured $15.2 million into that specific contest. This amount is double what the group spent in the same race over the entire summer. Of that total, $12.4 million was used to attack Democratic candidate James Talarico. An additional $2.8 million supported Republican candidate Ken Paxton.

Daily filings submitted after the initial report show further movement. Another $9.1 million has since been directed against Talarico. This brings the total spending against the Democrat to nearly $28 million. That figure represents roughly 40 percent of everything the committee has spent supporting or opposing candidates this cycle. The group has also shifted its strategy toward digital channels. It spent $11.4 million on online ads in the two-week period. This is close to what it spent on mail and text messages combined.

Musk has also been active on social media regarding the Texas contest. On Wednesday, he posted on X that something is deeply wrong with Talarico. He called the candidate a creep and claimed without evidence that Talarico would vote to take away children and transition them. Earlier this month, he amplified a false claim that Talarico had been treated at a mental health facility.

Talarico responded to the criticism the same day. He stated that there is something deeply wrong with a political system that allows one trillionaire to buy his own personal U.S. Senator. The contest remains a toss-up. An Emerson College poll of 1,000 likely Texas voters conducted from October 17 to 19 put Talarico at 48 percent and Paxton at 46 percent. The margin of error is three points.

The stakes for Musk extend beyond the Texas Senate seat. If Democrats win the House, committee chairs have signaled they will investigate Musk’s role in the Department of Government Efficiency. They also plan to look into federal contracts held by his companies and a significant number of conflicts of interest. California Democrat Zoe Lofgren described these conflicts as astounding. Democratic control of both chambers would create even more difficulties for Musk.

Silicon Valley Democrats have identified another area for scrutiny. They are looking at restrictions on SpaceX’s Starshield satellite service in Ukraine. In a letter to the White House demanding an investigation, Representatives Sam Liccardo, Jimmy Panetta, and Ro Khanna stated that the next Congress will closely scrutinize federal funding awarded to Musk’s businesses.