Elon Musk, the world's richest person, invested more than $445 million in Republican candidates and aligned PACs for the midterm elections, but voters across the United States appeared to repudiate his efforts. Despite this significant financial backing, Democrats successfully reclaimed control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
According to US Federal Election Commission data, Musk funneled at least $445.7 million into GOP campaigns. This spending saw a dramatic increase in the final two months before election day, with an additional $200 million contributed. His America PAC targeted 43 House and Senate races nationwide, utilizing television commercials, digital ads, text messages, and mailers.
The PAC made 839 independent expenditures in House races and 623 in Senate races across 17 states. A substantial portion of Musk's contributions, over $33 million, was directed towards efforts to elect Attorney General Ken Paxton to the Senate in Texas against Democrat James Talarico. An additional $168 million was contributed to the Senate Leadership Fund, which also supported Paxton's campaign.
Musk also leveraged his social media platform, X, to repost his PAC's content to his more than 200 million followers. One ad, which claimed Talarico supported "trans your kids and destroy the border," was shown more than 10 million times over an eight-day period.
However, these efforts did not yield the desired results. In Texas, James Talarico defeated Paxton, marking the first time a Democrat has been elected to the state's Senate delegation in 38 years. Republican Governor Greg Abbott was also ousted by Democratic candidate Gina Hinojosa in a significant upset.
President Donald Trump, who had endorsed Paxton, denied responsibility for the midterm election losses, suggesting instead that poor candidate quality was the primary reason for the outcomes. Trump asserted that his absence from the ballot was a key factor, stating, "I wasn't on the ballot, and if I was, we would have won in a landslide."