Elon Musk gave his personal political committee, America PAC, more than $76 million in the first two weeks of October to boost Republicans in the final stretch of the midterms, according to a pre-election report the PAC filed Thursday evening with the Federal Election Commission.
The group spent nearly $43 million in the first two weeks of October, and entered the campaign’s last leg holding nearly $47 million in cash.
The Texas Senate race dominated the new spending. It drew $15.2 million, double what the PAC spent there all summer. That spending included $12.4 million to attack Democratic candidate James Talarico and $2.8 million to promote Republican Ken Paxton.
Daily filings since then show $9.1 million more against Talarico, bringing the PAC’s spending against him this cycle to nearly $28 million, about 40 percent of everything it has spent supporting or opposing candidates. The PAC also shifted toward online ads, spending $11.4 million on digital ads in the same two weeks, which is close to what it spent on mail and texting combined.
All told, Musk has given more than $445 million to Republican political groups this election cycle, according to WIRED’s analysis of FEC filings, making him the biggest known individual donor in the midterms. More than $165 million of that has gone to America PAC since July alone.
Musk—who has several companies, including Tesla and SpaceX, based in Texas—has also been posting online about the race. ” Earlier this month, Musk amplified a false claim that Talarico had been treated at a mental health facility.
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