{"id":467706,"date":"2026-10-16T09:48:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T09:48:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/467706\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T09:48:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T09:48:17","slug":"musk-contributed-more-than-150-million-to-bolster-gop-in-texas-senate-race-filings-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/467706\/","title":{"rendered":"Musk contributed more than $150 million to bolster GOP in Texas Senate race, filings show"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n New filings with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday are shedding light on tech billionaire Elon Musk\u2019s heavy influence on the 2026 midterm elections, especially the blockbuster Senate race <\/a>in Texas.\n <\/p>\n

\n After contributing<\/a> more than a quarter of a billion dollars to support President Donald Trump\u2019s 2024 presidential campaign, Musk is reprising his role as a pillar of GOP operations.\n <\/p>\n

\n According to the third quarter report<\/a> from Senate Leadership Fund \u2013 the principal GOP super PAC targeting Senate races \u2013 Musk donated $75 million on September 9, and another $83 million on September 23.\n <\/p>\n

\n That injection of more than $150 million appeared to flow directly to another group, Texas PAC, formed specifically for the unusually competitive Senate race in the state, where many of Musk\u2019s business interests are based.\n <\/p>\n

\n Musk has built a massive business empire in the state, centralizing operations for its companies SpaceX, Tesla, X, among others. In 2024, Musk relocated headquarters for X and SpaceX to Texas from California.\n <\/p>\n

\n The Republican-aligned groups have backed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton\u2019s bid against Democrat James Talarico in the closely contested race for the seat currently held by Republican Sen. John Cornyn.\n <\/p>\n

\"President<\/p>\n

\n The filing shows that SLF transferred<\/a> $75 million to Texas PAC on September 10 \u2013 exactly matching Musk\u2019s donation to SLF, one day earlier \u2013 and another $83 million to Texas PAC on September 24 \u2013 also a day after Musk gave the same amount to SLF.\n <\/p>\n

\n In September, the same time Musk\u2019s money began flowing to Republicans, GOP ad support skyrocketed \u2013 Texas PAC spent more than $77 million on ads in the month alone, according to AdImpact data. And in total, including the September surge and bookings through Election Day, Texas PAC is set to spend nearly $160 million on ads backing Paxton.\n <\/p>\n

\n The filings came the same day Talarico\u2019s campaign touted raising a \u201crecord-breaking\u201d $64 million in the third quarter of this year.\n <\/p>\n

\n The previous quarterly record holder was former South Carolina Senate candidate Jaime Harrison in 2020, at $57.9 million, so Talarico has set a new record.\n <\/p>\n

\"20260923-paxton_talarico.jpg\"<\/p>\n

TX Senate race tops $500M in ad spending as GOP scrambles to save Paxton\n <\/p>\n

\"20260923-paxton_talarico.jpg\"<\/p>\n

TX Senate race tops $500M in ad spending as GOP scrambles to save Paxton<\/p>\n

5:04<\/p>\n

\n The amount brings the total Talarico has raised since launching his campaign in September 2025 to more than $134.3 million, his campaign added in a statement, sharing that an overwhelming majority of it came from small contributions.\n <\/p>\n

\n Meanwhile, Paxton has raised $18 million in the third quarter through his campaign and affiliated committees. While Talarico may be leading in fundraising, Republicans continue to have a massive spending advantage and he is trailing in terms of money spent on TV.\n <\/p>\n

\n Talarico\u2019s race against Paxton is one of the most-watched contests on the map, and two new polls find no clear leader<\/a> even as ad spending has surpassed half a billion dollars<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n On Wednesday night, Talarico took the stage alone to take question from Texas voters in a town hall <\/a>hosted by CNN and Jubilee, in which he vowed to \u201cstand up to my own party\u201d<\/a> and \u201cthe other party\u201d on energy policy and criticized \u201cextremism\u201d<\/a> in both parties on immigration.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New filings with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday are shedding light on tech billionaire Elon Musk\u2019s heavy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-467706","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\/467706","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=467706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}