Elon Musk has emerged as the dominant financial force behind Republican efforts to defeat Democrat James Talarico in the Texas Senate race, according to new campaign finance filings with the Federal Election Commission. The world’s richest man appears to be the chief sponsor of a prominent super PAC supporting Republican Ken Paxton, having funneled more than $158 million into the Texas contest through a two-step transfer arrangement. On September 9, the first day of the GOP midterm convention in Dallas, Musk gave $75 million to the Senate Leadership Fund (SLF), the main Senate Republican super PAC, which transferred the identical sum to Texas PAC—a group founded just weeks earlier to back Paxton—one day later. On September 23, Musk contributed another $83 million to SLF, which again moved that exact amount to Texas PAC the following day. The structure has allowed the national Senate GOP group to support Paxton without draining resources from Republicans locked in competitive races in North Carolina, Maine, Iowa, Ohio, Kansas and Alaska as the party fights to hold its four-seat Senate majority.
The Texas spending is just one piece of Musk’s extraordinary midterm outlay, which now exceeds $276 million—close to what he spent on the entire 2024 presidential election. Beyond the Texas transfers, he has pumped more than $76 million into AMERICA PAC, his own super PAC working to target and turn out low-propensity Trump voters even though Trump is not on the ballot; given $20 million to the Congressional Leadership Fund, the main House Republican super PAC; contributed $10 million to another pro-Paxton super PAC; donated $10 million to the Republican Governors Association; and gave $2 million to the Republican Attorneys General Association between July and September. Andrew Romeo, a spokesman for America PAC, defended the spending by warning that a Democratic takeover of Washington and victories in key gubernatorial and attorney general races would risk making America „a socialist, woke and borderless country,” adding that the investments have given the GOP apparatus the resources to get its message out and „a fighting chance to defy history.”
Despite Musk’s largesse, Democrats have shown striking fundraising strength in several competitive contests. Talarico raised $64 million in the third quarter alone—a record for Senate races—far outpacing Paxton’s $18 million over the same period, and many Democratic candidates out-raised their GOP opponents in key House and Senate races. Republicans, however, continue to enjoy a massive advantage in outside spending from allied political groups like Musk’s, which have helped their candidates target voters even as the party defends an increasingly narrow Senate majority and Democrats pour money into defending open seats in Michigan, New Hampshire and Minnesota. The filings make clear that the battle for Texas—and control of Congress—is being shaped as much by a single billionaire’s checkbook as by the candidates themselves.
Ez a cikk a Neural News AI (V1) verziójával készült.
Forrás: https://abcnews.com/Politics/elon-musk-bankrolling-gops-hopes-texas-senate-race/story?id=137320055.