Elon Musk donates over $150 million to Senate GOP group, assisting Ken Paxton

Money moved to Texas

Federal Election Commission filings show Musk made the donations to the Senate Leadership Fund PAC last month. One day after each contribution, the fund sent the same amount to Texas PAC.

Texas PAC reported spending more than $100 million to support Paxton and oppose Talarico. Paxton is seeking the Republican nomination for the Senate seat after defeating incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in a bitter primary earlier this year.

A costly political return

The donations signal a renewed round of large-scale political giving by Musk, the world’s richest man. In 2024, he spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars supporting Trump and other Republican candidates.

Musk was the top political donor in that election cycle, but it was unclear afterward whether he would continue spending at a similar level. His time leading the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency ended amid a brief public dispute with the president, and Musk later suggested he might pull back.

Texas race draws attention

Musk lives in Texas, where his largest companies, SpaceX and Tesla, have many operations. He has also sharply criticized Talarico in recent weeks. Talarico is seeking to become the first Democrat to win a statewide election in Texas in more than three decades. He has focused on Paxton’s past scandals and divisions among Republicans, while Paxton and his allies, including Trump, have portrayed Talarico as too liberal for the state’s voters.