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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\nElon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, has reclaimed his title as the single biggest known political donor at the federal level, dropping more than $280 million over the summer to boost Republican candidates in this year\u2019s midterm elections.<\/p>\n
And his biggest mission so far: to boost Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in what\u2019s become one of the most expensive contests this year, the Texas Senate race.<\/p>\n
In September, the billionaire tech executive transferred a whopping $158 million into the GOP leadership-linked super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund, in two installments. The first one totaled $75 million on Sept. 9, and then $85 million on Sept. 23, according to the group\u2019s latest filing to the Federal Election Commission.<\/p>\n
And a day after each of those contributions, SLF transferred the exact same amount of money to a pro-Ken Paxton super PAC called Texas PAC, their latest disclosures show.<\/p>\n
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Democrat James Talarico currently has a 3-point lead<\/a> over Paxton, according to MS NOW\u2019s polling data partner FiftyPlusOne, meaning this race is still a toss-up<\/a>.<\/p>\n Musk\u2019s eye-popping donations to SLF reportedly<\/a> came on the heels of conversations among SLF and Musk\u2019s political advisers about matching contributions to boost pro-Paxton efforts in the final stretch of the election. Earlier in August, Musk\u2019s trust and SLF had donated $10 million and $5 million, respectively, to Lone Star Liberty PAC, another pro-Paxton super PAC. That\u2019s according to the super PAC\u2019s latest disclosure. The infusion of cash from Musk and SLF has allowed both Texas PAC and Lone Star Liberty PAC to dominate the Texas airwaves in the past month. In particular, Texas PAC has quickly become the top spender in what was an already expensive race.<\/p>\n Texas PAC has since burned through at least $132 million of the newly raised money on ads, postage and other efforts in support of Paxton and against his Democratic opponent, Talarico, according to FEC filings, with ad-tracking data showing an additional tens of millions of dollars\u2019 worth of reserved airtime in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n Notably, during the long and contentious Texas Senate GOP primary, SLF had publicly campaigned against Paxton in an effort to protect incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, only for the six-term senator to lose to Paxton after President Donald Trump\u2019s last-minute endorsement of the state\u2019s embattled attorney general.<\/p>\n But SLF quickly pivoted in support of Paxton once he was nominated. Now the $158 million from Musk makes up well over half of SLF\u2019s total fundraising in the third quarter of this year, though the money was immediately rerouted to the pro-Paxton super PAC. Still, SLF boasted a $155 million war chest entering October.<\/p>\n In all, the Texas Senate race has already drawn in more than $500 million just in ad spending on both sides of the aisle, according to data firm AdImpact.<\/p>\n \tMore articles<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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