Elon Musk uses billionaire wealth to buy Ken Paxton a Senate seat
By Maya Ellison · Reporting from Detroit ·
Elon Musk and other megadonors are flooding the Texas Senate race with cash to prop up Ken Paxton, proving that concentrated wealth now overrides the will of millions of voters.
Elon Musk is not just running companies. He is running a political takeover. According to Politico, Musk gave at least $276 million to boost Republicans in the third quarter. He is the largest spender of the cycle. He is joined by Richard Uihlein and Jeff Yass. Together, these three men accounted for more than $600 million in federal donations to Republicans. This is not "free speech." It is a purchase order for the U.S. government.
This is the same game I watched in Flint. The people with the money make the rules. The people without it just get the poison. I spent my twenties paying off loans while the houses on my block vanished in the 2008 crash. I know what happens when the elite are allowed to gamble with the future of everyone else. They win, and we pay the bill.
A trillionaire's ledger against a million voices
In Texas, the battle for the seat held by Republican Sen. John Cornyn is a mirror of our broken system. James Talarico is running for Senate against Attorney General Ken Paxton. Talarico is doing something historic. According to The Guardian, he raised $64 million in the third quarter.
Talarico is not relying on a few fat checks. He is relying on people. CNBC reports that 97% of his contributions were $100 or less. More than 1.3 million people put their own small change on the line. They are fighting to end billionaire control and bring down costs for working families.
But Musk is fighting back with a trillionaire's ledger. CNN reports that Texas PAC is set to spend on ads backing Paxton. Republican outside groups spent more than $175 million. This is the raw power of concentrated wealth. It does not matter how many people stand with Talarico if one man can buy the airwaves.
The machinery of political dominance
This is the logic of SpeechNow.org v. FEC. The creation of the super PAC mechanism allows concentrated wealth to be converted directly into political dominance through unlimited independent expenditures. It is a pipeline that turns corporate profit into political power.
This architecture was built by Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. That ruling enabled the flood of billionaire money that now lets one man drown out millions. It is the same systemic failure I saw during the Great Recession. The financial elite crashed the economy and then used their fortunes to protect their own interests.
Look at the men funding this machine. Richard Uihlein derives his war chest from the profits of his shipping supply monopoly, Uline. Jeff Yass accumulated his fortune through Wall Street trading at Susquehanna International Group. They are not "investing" in ideas. They are investing in a government that serves their specific, concentrated interests.
Andrew Romeo, a spokesperson for Musk’s America PAC, told the New York Times that these investments allow Republicans to "defy history." He claims that if Democrats win, America risks becoming a "socialist, woke and borderless country." This is the standard script. They frame the survival of the working class as a threat to the nation to justify their own greed.
The cost of a rigged system
The Republican apparatus is not winning on the merits. They are winning on the balance sheet. A Democratic strategist told Politico that Talarico is fighting this battle alone while Musk and the GOP outspend him 2:1. This is not a fair fight. It is a siege.
When a few billionaires can decide who wins a Senate seat, the voting booth becomes a formality. The real election happens in the boardrooms of Tesla and SpaceX. The real policy is written in the FEC filings.
We are told that this is just how politics works. But when the costs of deregulation and corporate greed land on zip codes like mine, it is not "politics." It is a theft of our collective future. We cannot pretend that a million small donors and one trillionaire are equal participants in a democracy.
Billionaire megadonors will now unleash a wave of independent expenditure advertising in the final weeks of the midterms. They want to purchase a Republican majority in the Senate. Elon Musk has already funneled over $366 million into federal committees this cycle. He is attempting to override grassroots enthusiasm with a checkbook. Justice requires a system where a million small voices outweigh one trillionaire. Until we break the super PAC, the government will remain a subsidiary of the ultra-wealthy.
Sources
- Politico: Megadonors are powering Republicans’ spending advantage
- CNN: Musk contributed more than $150 million to bolster GOP in Texas Senate race, filings show
- The Guardian: Paxton v Talarico: tens of millions of dollars pour into closely watched Texas Senate race
- NBC News: A quarter-billion dollars from Elon Musk leads the way as megadonors rush cash into the midterms
- CNBC: Democrat Talarico says he raised record $64 million over summer in Texas Senate race