Texas Senate Fight: Musk's PAC Doubles Summer Spending in Final Stretch

For Texas voters deciding who will represent them in the U.S. Senate, the final two weeks of the campaign have arrived with a massive influx of outside money. Federal Election Commission filings released Thursday evening show that Elon Musk’s personal political committee, America PAC, spent $15.2 million on the Texas Senate contest between October 1 and 14. That total is twice the amount the group spent in the same state over the entire summer.

The spending was heavily skewed toward attacking Democratic candidate James Talarico. Of the $15.2 million deployed in Texas, $12.4 million went to negative ads targeting Talarico, while $2.8 million promoted Republican opponent Ken Paxton. Daily filings submitted after the initial two-week period reveal an additional $9.1 million directed against Talarico. This brings America PAC’s total spending against the Democrat this cycle to nearly $28 million, which accounts for roughly 40 percent of all the group has spent supporting or opposing candidates.

The committee’s strategy has also shifted toward digital platforms. In the two-week window, America PAC spent $11.4 million on digital advertisements. This figure is close to what the group spent on mailers and text messages combined. The PAC received more than $76 million from Musk during this same period, leaving it with almost $47 million in cash on hand as it enters the final stretch of the midterm campaign.

Musk has also used his personal social media account to weigh in on the race. On Wednesday, he posted on X that there is something deeply wrong with Talarico, calling the candidate a creep. He claimed without evidence that Talarico would vote to take away children and transition them. Earlier in the month, Musk amplified a false claim that Talarico had been treated at a mental health facility. Talarico responded to the latest post by stating that there is something deeply wrong with a political system that allows one trillionaire to buy his own personal U.S. Senator.

The race remains close. An Emerson College poll of 1,000 likely Texas voters, conducted from October 17 to 19, placed Talarico at 48 percent and Paxton at 46 percent. That difference falls within the poll’s three-point margin of error. According to an analysis of FEC filings, Musk has given more than $445 million to Republican political groups this election cycle, making him the largest known individual donor in the midterms.

The outcome of this race carries implications beyond state politics. If Democrats win the House, lawmakers have signaled they will investigate Musk’s role in the Department of Government Efficiency and the federal contracts held by his companies. California Democrat Zoe Lofgren described the number of conflicts of interest as astounding. Representatives Sam Liccardo, Jimmy Panetta, and Ro Khanna also sent a letter to the White House stating that the next Congress will closely scrutinize federal funding awarded to Musk’s businesses, including restrictions on SpaceX’s Starshield satellite service in Ukraine.