Tens of millions of dollars are flowing into Texas as Democrats make a bold bid to win a U.S. Senate seat in the Republican stronghold.
Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, is among those entering the closely watched race ahead of November’s midterm elections.
In September alone, Musk donated $158 million to the Senate Leadership Fund, the main super political action committee (Pac) supporting Republican Senate candidates, Axios first reported. This donation accounted for more than half of the Senate Leadership Fund’s third quarter fundraising.
Separately, Musk donated $10 million to the Lone Star Liberty Pac, the committee dedicated to supporting Ken Paxton, the Republican candidate in Texas, after Alex Latcham, chairman of the Senate Leadership Fund, requested the funding.
A source close to the matter confirmed Axios’ information to the Guardian. The Guardian also requested comment from representatives of America Pac, the political operation founded by Musk.
The donations came as Republicans struggled to keep up with the spending of Paxton’s Democratic opponent, James Talarico. Over the summer, Talarico released an ad negatively portraying Paxton as a politician with a history of corruption.
Talarico, a young progressive candidate known for his faith-based messages, made big inroads with Texas’ liberal voters when he beat an established Democrat for the Senate nomination earlier this year. Talarico raised $64 million — the largest third-quarter fundraising haul in the history of a Senate candidate this summer alone, Politico reported.
“He’s fighting this battle essentially alone while Elon Musk and the full weight of the GOP fundraising apparatus outnumber him 2:1. It’s still an uphill battle,” an anonymous Democratic strategist working in Texas told Politico.
Polls have shown the two candidates essentially tied, although some have Talarico just ahead of Paxton.
The Texas Senate race is one of the most competitive races in the country and is expected to cost millions of dollars because it is an expensive state to run a campaign in.
The Senate Leadership Fund warned months earlier that supporting Paxton would cost between $150 million and $200 million. But Donald Trump chose Paxton himself to run against Talarico.
When Musk’s team and the Senate Leadership Fund analyzed the polls, they found that Paxton’s chances of victory were declining, leading Musk to intervene, Axios reported.
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During the 2025-2026 election cycle, Musk donated approximately $366 million to federal committees, The New York Times reported earlier this week. That’s far more than he did in the 2024 election cycle, when he gave about $290 million to help Trump.
The increased spending contradicts a statement Musk made in May 2025 when he predicted: “I think in terms of political spending, I’m going to do a lot less in the future.” »
Andrew Romeo, a spokesperson for America Pac, told the New York Times: “These robust investments allowed the Republican apparatus to get its message across so that Republicans could have a chance to defy history.
“If Democrats take control of Washington and win key elections for governor and attorney general in November, then America risks becoming a socialist, woke, borderless country,” Romeo added.
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