Elon Musk donates $158 million to Senate GOP group backing Ken Paxton

Billionaire Elon Musk donated $158 million last month to the main super PAC supporting Senate Republicans, which almost immediately sent the money to a group that supports GOP Texas Senate candidate Ken Paxton, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

Republicans are fighting to hold on to the Texas Senate seat, as polls point to a tight race between Paxton and Democratic opponent James Talarico. 

The assist from Musk — along with tens of millions of dollars in donations to other groups — marks a decisive return to large-scale political giving for the world’s richest man, who spent over a quarter of a billion dollars backing President Trump and other Republican candidates in 2024. 

Musk donated $75 million to the Senate Leadership Fund PAC on Sept. 9, and $83 million two weeks later, the group reported Thursday. Combined, the two super-sized donations from Musk made up more than half of the super PAC’s total receipts in the third quarter of this year.

One day after each donation, the Senate Leadership Fund PAC disbursed the same amount to Texas PAC. That group reported over $100 million in pro-Paxton and anti-Talarico spending.

Musk also donated more than $80 million from July to September to his own group, America PAC, which was the primary vehicle for his political giving in 2024. The group reported spending on the Texas Senate contest and several other competitive congressional races.

Musk — who has strongly criticized Talarico in recent weeks — is a resident of Texas, and his largest companies, SpaceX and Tesla, base many of their operations in the state.

Talarico is attempting to become the first Democrat to win a statewide race in Texas in more than three decades. He has sought to capitalize on Paxton’s history of scandal, and on still-lingering divides among Texas Republicans after Paxton defeated incumbent Republican Sen. John Cornyn in a bitter primary contest earlier this year. Paxton and his allies, including Mr. Trump, have argued Talarico is too far to the left for Texas’ electorate.

Most recent polls show Talarico with a within-the-margin-of-error lead. If Paxton loses the seat, it could deal a serious blow to Republicans’ efforts to hold on to the Senate.

After Musk served as the country’s top political donor in the 2024 cycle, it was initially unclear whether he planned to spend similar sums in future elections. His stint leading the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency ended with him briefly feuding with the president, and he suggested at one point last year that he planned to scale back his political spending, joking during one interview, “I think I’ve done enough.”

America PAC spokesperson Andrew Romeo said in a statement to WTX US News: “If Democrats take control of Washington and win key gubernatorial and attorney general races this November, then America risks becoming a socialist, woke and borderless country. These robust investments have allowed the G.O.P. apparatus to get its message out so Republicans can have a fighting chance to defy history.”