Elon Musk bankrolls the midterms to protect his contracts
By Maya Ellison · Reporting from Detroit ·
Elon Musk is pouring millions into Republican campaigns through America PAC to block congressional investigations and protect his federal contracts from working families.
A billionaire opens his checkbook to buy a Senate majority
Men in suits treat human lives like lines on a spreadsheet. When you watch that hollow out the block you love, you learn to spot the fingerprints of the wealthy. They strike the second they touch something fragile. Elon Musk, the mogul of Tesla and founder and CEO of SpaceX AI, is running a midterm rescue mission for the Republican Party. That is according to reporting by The Daily Beast. This spending towers over the $290 million he invested to help the president get elected. When the oligarchy feels the ground shifting beneath its feet, the checkbook opens wider. Musk pours cash through his America PAC. He sends direct donations to the Senate Leadership Fund, Congressional Leadership Fund, and the Republican Attorneys General Association. Musk is trying to buy an insurance policy against a democracy that threatens to hold him accountable. The Daily Beast reports that Musk also gave additional undisclosed donations. He operates in the dark while working people scrape by under widespread unaffordability.
The Citizens United v. FEC framework
This is the modern reality manufactured by the Citizens United v. FEC ruling. That landmark Supreme Court decision struck down restrictions on corporate and organizational electioneering. It birthed our current era of legalized vote-buying. This legal framework allows a billionaire to treat the democratic process as a private investment. Musk uses it to protect his government contracts and corporate interests. WIRED notes that America PAC pours money into close U.S. Senate contests where Democrats threaten to take the chamber. Musk provided the funding straight from his pocket. A Democratic-controlled Senate could target Elon Musk with congressional investigations. Lawmakers could pass bills regulating tech and AI. To stop them, Musk spends heavily opposing Democrats and supporting Republicans in Senate races. Today's billionaires deploy their fortunes to shield themselves from the consequences of economic despair.
Targeting working-class challengers with dark-money attack ads
The targets of this financial onslaught reveal exactly who the ruling class fears most. In Texas, where Tesla and SpaceX are based, America PAC targets Democratic candidate James Talarico. The PAC spent more than $9.4 million on ads opposing him while backing Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton. Talarico is a former middle school teacher and state representative leading Paxton in a Marist University poll. He threatens a GOP stronghold that has become fiercely competitive. Paxton's resume includes a state securities fraud felony indictment dismissed after a pretrial agreement requiring $300,000 in restitution. The Texas House also impeached Paxton over bribery allegations tied to donor Nate Paul. Yet Musk bankrolls an embattled machine politician to block a former teacher who speaks for working families. WIRED reports that America PAC also spent money attacking Democrat Josh Turek in Iowa and Sherrod Brown in Ohio. These attack ads descend directly from the data-driven manipulation seen in the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal. They weaponize digital platforms to target voters with fear and division. America PAC spokesperson Andrew Romeo claimed that without these funds, "America risks becoming a socialist, woke, and borderless country." He uses culture-war panic to mask the protection of billionaire tax cuts and federal subsidies.
Protecting government contracts at the expense of working people
Let us look at the federal ledger to understand why Musk fights to control the levers of government. Space Exploration Technologies Corp. has pulled in billions in taxpayer-funded awards from NASA and the Department of Defense. Musk briefly served as the public face of the Department of Government Efficiency to slash federal spending. He left the administration and called the president's spending package a "disgusting abomination." Musk traded bitter insults with Donald Trump, including accusations of covering up ties to Jeffrey Epstein. But when conservative activist Charlie Kirk was killed, Musk returned to the fold. He united with an administration whose approval ratings sink under a war of choice with Iran. Meanwhile, the president dismisses widespread unaffordability as a hoax. When billionaires treat elections as a hostile takeover bid, they bet that working people are too exhausted to fight back. We must fund our schools and tax the rich. We must build a democracy that cannot be bought by a tech mogul with a checkbook.