{"id":427107,"date":"2026-09-05T11:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T11:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/427107\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T11:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T11:30:10","slug":"musk-has-started-spending-money-to-help-ken-paxton-will-it-help-change-the-course-of-the-texas-senate-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/427107\/","title":{"rendered":"Musk has started spending money to help Ken Paxton. Will it help change the course of the Texas Senate race?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n For months, Texas Republicans have anxiously awaited the arrival of national resources to help boost Ken Paxton<\/a>, one of the GOP\u2019s most vulnerable Senate candidates.\n <\/p>\n

\n Now, Elon Musk<\/a>, the world\u2019s richest person, has entered the scene, this week disclosing the first spending from his super PAC to benefit Paxton and raising GOP hopes that the floodgates soon will open wide to help the Texas attorney general overcome a deep financial deficit with his Democratic rival James Talarico. Other groups, including a super PAC associated with Sen. Ted Cruz, also have begun to step up their activity on Paxton\u2019s behalf.\n <\/p>\n

\n Musk\u2019s America PAC, however, stands apart because it is largely funded by the billionaire himself who has become one of the biggest individual donors shaping US politics \u2014 and a major player in Texas politics specifically.\n <\/p>\n

\n With its activity, the PAC has signaled the Texas contest is one of its priorities as it plans massive spending to shape the outcome of the midterms. One person who has spoken to the group in Texas says they are hiring for what they believe to be an expansive turnout operation in the state.\n <\/p>\n

\n Officials with the Musk super PAC have not disclosed how much they intend to spend to aid Paxton\u2019s bid. But Texas Republican operatives who are not involved with America PAC said it makes sense that Musk, who has made Texas the base of his growing corporate empire, would want to go all in for Paxton.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe business interests, the long-term investment that he is making, the Musk operation politically does not need to have a Democrat in their backyard,\u201d said Matt Langston, a GOP strategist in the state. \u201cThey will invest. They will get involved in a big way.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n PAC officials indicated that political rather than business considerations are driving their decision-making.\n <\/p>\n

\n In a statement to CNN, America PAC spokesman Andrew Romeo said the Musk group \u201cis working in full coordination with the entire GOP apparatus and investing in the states and districts that will decide control of the House and Senate.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cOur only priority is ensuring Republicans keep full control of Washington and stopping the lunatic left from bringing us back to the days of open borders, rampant crime and woke policies.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n CNN also has reached out to Paxton\u2019s campaign for comment.\n <\/p>\n

\"SpaceX's<\/p>\n

\n Musk has deep ties to Texas, relocating several of his businesses\u2019 headquarters to the state. Tesla and SpaceX are part of a joint venture developing Terafab<\/a>, a massive chipmaking factory outside Houston.\n <\/p>\n

\n As attorney general, Paxton launched<\/a> an investigation of advertising boycotts on platforms such as X, several months after Musk sued<\/a> a group of advertisers and major companies accusing them of illegally conspiring to pull their ads from X.\n <\/p>\n

\n But Musk\u2019s allies also have sparred in court with Paxton over his orders that certain records tied to operations of Starbase, the recently incorporated Texas town that is home to SpaceX, must be publicly released under the state\u2019s open records law.\n <\/p>\n

\n Musk said during a radio interview with Gov. Greg Abbott in July that he \u201clove(s)\u201d Texas and its friendly business climate.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt\u2019s a great state to do business in. It\u2019s super supportive and, I think, really emblematic of American values,\u201d Musk told Abbott, who was filling in for radio host Sean Hannity. \u201cI love being here and I love being a Texan.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Musk has deepened his political ties to Texas in other ways this election cycle.\n <\/p>\n

\n He has given $3 million to Texans for Lawsuit Reform, the state\u2019s powerful tort reform group. He has also donated $2 million to the Judicial Fairness PAC, which works to elect GOP candidates for judicial positions. And he has made six-figure contributions to each of the state\u2019s top three leaders: Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and state House Speaker Dustin Burrows.\n <\/p>\n

\n Meanwhile, one of his lawyers, Chris Gober, is on track to join Congress next year. Gober won a Republican primary in March for an open House seat in Central Texas that strongly favors the GOP.\n <\/p>\n

\n Some Republicans have voiced frustration<\/a> that the cost of defending a Senate seat in deep-red Texas skyrocketed after the controversial Paxton toppled incumbent GOP Sen. John Cornyn in the primary, aided by President Donald Trump\u2019s endorsement.\n <\/p>\n

\n Democrats need a net gain of just four seats to flip the US Senate.\n <\/p>\n

\n Paxton has confronted an array of scandals in recent years, including a 2023 impeachment by the Texas House of Representatives over allegations of bribery and corruption. He was later acquitted of all the charges by the state Senate.\n <\/p>\n

\"Ken<\/p>\n

\n Republican leaders are openly calling for Trump to deploy some of the roughly $400 million sitting in his MAGA Inc. war chest to help Paxton.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI think all of our allies out there, including the president and his team and their resources, need to be brought to bear on Texas,\u201d Senate Majority Leader John Thune said on Fox News earlier this week.\n <\/p>\n

\n Officials with MAGA Inc. have consistently declined to telegraph the super PAC\u2019s midterm strategy. In remarks Friday, Trump indicated that he planned to direct some of his cash reserves to \u201cpeople that I think are good Republicans\u201d and \u201ccan win or are closing to winning.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Paxton\u2019s side, however, is getting more help on the airwaves now, after weeks of lagging behind his rival.\n <\/p>\n

\n Republican outside groups, led by the pro-Paxton Lone Star Liberty PAC, are spending a combined $11 million on advertising this week, swamping the roughly $4 million coming from Talarico\u2019s campaign, according to data from AdImpact, which tracks political commercials.\n <\/p>\n

\n That\u2019s in sharp contrast to August when Democrats spent $13.3 million in advertising in the race to Republicans\u2019 $4.7 million.\n <\/p>\n

\n James Dickey, a former Texas Republican Party chairman who now runs a government affairs firm, insists that the money concerns swirling around Paxton\u2019s candidacy are overblown, pointing to several well-funded Democrats who have tried and fail to win statewide office in Texas in recent years.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cHistory is replete with examples that money is necessary but not sufficient to win an election,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is no reason to believe that Attorney General Paxton will not have enough funds.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Elon<\/p>\n

\n On Thursday night, the Musk PAC reported spending roughly $840,000 to benefit 15 House and Senate candidates, a modest sum that is expected to grow dramatically in the weeks ahead, given Musk\u2019s commitment to help Republicans retain control of Congress during Trump\u2019s final two years in office.\n <\/p>\n

\n Nearly $250,000 of the sum backed Paxton, the biggest share of America PAC\u2019s first tranche of candidate-focused spending, but those proportions could change as the committee ramps up its spending.\n <\/p>\n

\n On Friday night, the group disclosed spending another $2.9 million on midterm races, nearly half of it going toward the contest in Texas.\n <\/p>\n

\n The early Musk money across congressional races has gone to printing expenses, signaling its use for direct outreach to voters in the form of mailings or other political literature.\n <\/p>\n

\n Separately, America PAC also invested in digital advertising in key battlegrounds, although that spending has focused on boosting registration among targeted voters, rather than advocating for individual candidates. One such ad tells Facebook users in Texas that \u201cyour state could flip control of the Senate\u201d and encourages them to check their registration status now.\n <\/p>\n

\n America PAC\u2019s new burst of activity marks a significant Musk reengagement with Republicans, more than a year after the billionaire broke with Trump and threatened to start his own political party. He has since reconciled with the president, and the third-party idea fizzled.\n <\/p>\n

\n Republicans say they are eager to see the billionaire spend big across the country but privately hope he maintains a lower profile during the fall campaign. His brief tenure overseeing the federal Department of Government Efficiency made him a household name and a villain among a federal workforce affected by the DOGE cuts.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI think he has learned a lot from his experience at DOGE,\u201d said one Republican strategist involved in the midterms who believes Musk will remain more in the background this fall. The person also praised Musk\u2019s political team \u2014 headed by a Chris Young, an experienced operative who directed the PAC\u2019s 2024 effort \u2014 as \u201creal pros.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n In the 2024 election, Musk spent nearly $300 million boosting Trump and Republicans, much of it aimed at building a ground game in key battlegrounds to turn out voters. But his high-profile effort last year to flip majority control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court backfired. The Republican he supported lost by 10 percentage points to the Democrat.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI think I got a little too involved in politics. I got carried away, frankly,\u201d Musk said during a July interview with The Economist, reflecting on his DOGE tenure.\n <\/p>\n

\n Democrats say they will respond to the expected fundraising onslaught by seeking to make Musk a lightning rod in battleground races.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cElon Musk is toxic and one of the most unpopular figures in America,\u201d CJ Warnke, communications director for House Majority PAC, the main House Democratic super PAC, told CNN. \u201cAs we saw in Wisconsin in 2025, he will be a drag on any Republican campaign this fall.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n That strategy was already on display this week.\n <\/p>\n

\n A day after the first spending disclosures by Musk\u2019s PAC, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee blasted out a news release, singling out several House Republicans benefiting from Musk\u2019s money. Republican lawmakers, it said, were relying on billionaire donors \u201cto rescue them.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For months, Texas Republicans have anxiously awaited the arrival of national resources to help boost Ken Paxton, one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427108,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-427107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}