U.S. President Donald Trump talks to the media next to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, with a Tesla car in the background, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 11, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
Elon Musk is spending heavily to rescue Ken Paxton’s struggling Senate campaign in Texas, and his money is getting Republicans out of a jam that party leaders warned about long before President Donald Trump's endorsement.
According to Axios, Musk’s team contacted Republicans in late August about what the outlet called “a train wreck they all saw coming,” and they warned the GOP must dump more money into Texas right away or risk losing the Senate race within weeks.
At the time, Democrat James Talarico dominated the state’s airwaves, portraying the scandal-plagued Paxton as one of the country’s most corrupt politicians. Paxton isn’t known as a strong fundraiser and had no ads on TV, and polling seen by Musk’s team and the Senate Leadership Fund (SLF) suggested his chances were sinking.
Musk’s top political adviser, Chris Young, called SLF president Alex Latcham with an offer: Musk would give $5 million to a pro-Paxton super PAC if that group raised $5 million of its own. Latcham countered: Musk would give $10 million, matched by $5 million from the pro-Paxton group and $5 million from SLF. Young agreed, and within days Republicans had $20 million to get Paxton on the air.
That was just the beginning. On Sept. 11, SLF launched Texas PAC, a new super PAC devoted to Paxton. SLF and the pro-Trump MAGA Inc. began airing tens of millions of dollars in pro-Paxton ads, while Musk’s America PAC kept running its voter-turnout operation.
Musk gave SLF $158 million in September alone: $75 million on Sept. 9 and $83 million on Sept. 23. That was nearly 58 percent of the $273 million the group raised in the third quarter. Overall, he has given $276 million to pro-GOP midterm efforts since July, the New York Times first reported.
The cash meant Republicans didn’t have to drain money from other battlegrounds to prop up Paxton, and it also freed up funds for unexpectedly competitive races in Kansas and South Carolina.
The costly bailout is exactly what GOP leaders feared. In a spring 2025 memo to donors, SLF estimated that electing Paxton could cost $150 million to $200 million. That’s far more than a general election campaign for incumbent Sen. John Cornyn would have cost.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) backed Cornyn, worried that Paxton’s legal troubles and personal scandals would leave him exposed to Democratic attacks, but Paxton, a Trump loyalist, won the primary after the president endorsed him.
Musk’s role as the GOP’s biggest donor marks a dramatic return after his bitter falling-out with Trump last year. The two later reconciled, and Musk resumed donating to Republican causes in December.
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