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Elon Musk spent nearly $500 million on the midterms. It bought him almost nothing

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Elon Musk spent nearly $500 million on the midterms. It bought him almost nothing

Elon Musk put about $474 million into the 2026 midterms, according to a New York Times tally. (And that’s just through October 14, when the FEC and IRS filings stop. The trillionaire may have given far more in dark money.) For comparison, the world’s richest man spent an estimated $250 million to get Donald Trump elected in 2024.

But this time, he has little to show for his efforts. Democrats wrested control of both the House and Senate from Republicans Tuesday night. A Forbes analysis shows that 44 of Musk’s 106 candidates lost, including in the races that mattered most to him: Ken Paxton’s bid for a Texas Senate seat, Greg Abbott’s bid to remain Texas governor, and Vivek Ramaswamy’s bid for governor of Ohio. Eighteen Musk-backed candidates won, but all were in seats Republicans were expected to win anyway. Another 44 races remained uncalled Wednesday.

Musk’s money was funneled to Republican House and Senate candidates through his own super PAC, America PAC (about $216 million), the Senate Leadership Fund ($168 million), and the Congressional Leadership Fund for House races ($30 million).

The largest share of Musk’s midterms spending—$212 million—went toward helping Ken Paxton beat James Talarico for the Texas Senate seat formerly held by John Cornyn. Talarico walloped Paxton Tuesday night, winning by 12 points in the traditionally red state. In his victory speech, Talarico seemed to call out Musk, saying he had sent “a message to every billionaire megadonor, every trillionaire megadonor.”

2 million in Michigan. Democrat Sherrod Brown won the Senate seat in Ohio, while El-Sayed won the Senate seat in Michigan.


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