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If Ken Paxton wins Texas, he may have Elon Musk to thank.
Campaign finance filings released Thursday show Musk, the world’s richest person and a Texas resident with major business interests in the state, sent $158 million in September to the Senate Leadership Fund, the super PAC that serves as Senate Republicans’ top fundraising vehicle. The very next day after each donation, the super PAC cut a check for the same amount to Texas PAC, a group the Senate Leadership Fund set up to support Paxton’s Senate bid.
The money trail, first detailed by The New York Times and now confirmed in Federal Election Commission filings, is almost too clean to be coincidence:
The money trail
- September 9: Musk donates $75 million to the Senate Leadership Fund.
- September 10: The Senate Leadership Fund disburses $75 million to Texas PAC.
- September 23: Musk donates another $83 million to the Senate Leadership Fund.
- September 24: The Senate Leadership Fund disburses $83 million to Texas PAC.
Texas PAC has since reported more than $100 million in pro-Paxton and anti-Talarico spending. Musk’s two donations alone made up more than half of the Senate Leadership Fund’s total receipts for the third quarter.
The fine print
The money sent to the Texas group was not necessarily Musk’s own dollars. Super PAC officials have said publicly they were already seeking new donations to finance a pro-Paxton operation. But without Musk’s historic donations, it is unlikely anywhere near that amount would have flowed Paxton’s way. Rarely has an individual donor been this closely tied to such a large commitment for a single candidate.
The other $10 million
Musk also donated $10 million to a separate pro-Paxton super PAC, money that let the group start running television ads in late August. And he has poured more than $80 million from July through September into his own group, America PAC, which has also spent on the Texas Senate contest.
Musk lives in Austin. Paxton, as Texas attorney general, regulates Musk’s businesses in the state. The two are allies in Texas politics. Musk has not shown much public enthusiasm for any midterm candidates, rarely posting about Republican nominees on X, but in recent days he has posted negatively multiple times about Talarico.
Why it matters for us
Talarico raised $64 million in the third quarter, reportedly the largest third-quarter haul of any Senate candidate in history, and he has run on calling out billionaire influence in politics. Now he is effectively facing the world’s richest person as his opponent’s biggest donor. A Democratic strategist in Texas told Politico that Talarico is “fighting this battle basically alone while Elon Musk and the full weight of the GOP fundraising apparatus outspends him 2:1.”
Republicans have grown increasingly worried about the race, fearful of losing a statewide election in Texas for the first time in more than three decades. Polls show the race essentially tied.
What to watch
Texas PAC’s spending pace through October, whether Talarico’s grassroots haul can close the gap, and whether Musk’s direct attacks on Talarico escalate as Election Day, November 3, gets closer.
Sources: The New York Times, Axios, The Guardian, Politico
Post angle: The world’s richest man just became Ken Paxton’s biggest donor. $158 million in, $158 million out, one day apart. The receipts are public.
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Keywords: Elon Musk Ken Paxton, Musk $158 million donation, Texas Senate race 2026, Paxton Talarico money, Senate Leadership Fund Texas PAC, Elon Musk campaign donations midterms, James Talarico fundraising
