Elon Musk declared last year that he was going to do “a lot less” political spending in the future, adding that if he felt compelled to invest more of his (unfathomable amounts of) money, he would. But he did not “currently see a reason.” Well apparently he’s got one now, and it generally falls under the motivation of keeping Republicans in power come November.
Late on Wednesday, Musk’s super-PAC revealed that it spent approximately $800,000 last month on key House and Senate races with the most significant amounts of money going to Texas and Maine. In Texas, where Democrat James Talarico holds a slim lead over Attorney General Ken Paxton — whom the conservative National Review recently described as “spectacularly corrupt” and “vaguely amphibious-looking” — Musk’s PAC spent $247,595. Trump’s endorsement of Paxton has hardly been ringing. “You might not like the way he dresses,” “the way he looks,” or “his television interviews,” Trump said on Wednesday. “But he was the best attorney general [and] that speaks a lot louder than the suit he’s wearing that doesn’t look so great.”
In Maine — where Susan Collins, the second-most unpopular senator in the country is facing a challenge from Democrat Troy Jackson — the America PAC wrote a check for $170,224.29. Money also went to Ohio ($105,675), New Hampshire ($91,458), Iowa ($54,600), Michigan ($25,605) and Alaska ($17,235). Disclosures show over $207,000 in spending on digital ads, including one featuring NYC mayor Zohran Mamdani that warned people: “You couldn’t vote in his election, and socialism declared victory over America’s biggest city. If you don’t vote in November, socialism could declare victory over America.”
