Musk gave the money to Super-PACs which immediately gave it all to Paxton.
Here’s a Cool $158 Million
The Wall Street Journal reports Elon Musk Pours a Fortune Into Saving Texas for Republicans
According to federal filings, Musk donated $158 million to Senate Republicans’ super PAC in September—the same amount that was immediately funneled to a group backing Republican Ken Paxton’s Senate bid.
The new disclosures show that Musk, the world’s richest person, is behind much of the money that has been pumped into the Texas Senate race to help keep Paxton financially competitive as his Democratic opponent James Talarico has significantly outraised him throughout the race.
Musk is a Texas resident and has several companies, including Tesla and SpaceX, based in the Lone Star State.
In September, Musk sent two large donations to the Senate Leadership Fund, Senate Republicans’ main super PAC.
On Sept. 9, the first day of the Republican midterm convention in Dallas, Musk funneled $75 million to SLF. The following day, the super PAC moved $75 million into a connected entity named Texas PAC. Two weeks later, Musk gave $83 million to SLF—and again, the following day, the group sent the same amount to Texas PAC, which is the biggest advertiser in the Texas contest, according to AdImpact data.
And in August, he also gave $10 million to Lone Star Liberty PAC, a super PAC boosting Paxton.
Overall, Musk gave more than $250 million to Republican-aligned groups in the third quarter, campaign-finance filings show. Among that was $89 million he gave to his own America PAC.
Going into the midterms, Republicans had a money advantage over Democrats. They have been throwing hundreds of millions of dollars into races across the country. Still, polls haven’t shown significant shifts in high-profile contests since more money started pumping in.
Money Can’t Buy Me Votes
The Beatles wrote a song about votes. It goes like this.
Can’t buy me votes, ev’rybody tells me so.
Can’t buy me votes, no, no, no, no.‘Cause I don’t care too much for money,
Money can’t buy me votes.
Press Secretary Ousted After Five Days
The New York Times reports Katie Zacharia Is Ousted After 5 Days as White House Press Secretary
President Trump’s new press secretary, Katie Zacharia, was forced out Friday, after less than a week on the job, according to three people familiar with the matter.
The people spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the decision, which was not yet announced. Ms. Zacharia did not respond to requests for comment. But Mr. Trump told reporters on Friday that he had encouraged Ms. Zacharia to “reconsider” the job.
“Honestly, if I were you, I’d reconsider,” he told reporters, recounting his conversation with his press secretary. He said he added: “Katie, do you need this? I don’t think you need this.”
He said Ms. Zacharia might continue to work for him “in some form, but maybe a more pleasant form.”
New Record
Check out her first press conference.
I did not think we would ever see anything as bad as Biden’s press secretary, but I was wrong.
She lasted five days.
The Apparent Mystery
The apparent mystery is not that she was fired in record time, but how the hell she was ever hired in the first place.
The key skill of a CEO is the ability to discern and hire good people — no CEO can do everything. Yet, he plainly hires people based on family connections and women based on physical appearance, without any legitimate reason.
Not that any further proof was needed, but this appointment alone is sufficient to kill any pretense that Trump was a great businessman.
The White Hair
“The white hair and a big strong guy. That’s what I want.”
The Name Game
Texas Polymarket
Split Ticket Texas Senate
The Split Ticket model, based on polls, gives Talarico a 72 percent chance.
Nate Silver gives Talarico a 71 percent chance in his Deluxe model and 68 percent in his Classic and Lite models.
An Insider Advantage poll released today has Paxton up by 1. An ActiVote poll released yesterday has Talarico up by 4.
As a result, my assessment is down a bit today to ~65 percent for Talarico.
I Voted Today
What About Musk?
I find Musk’s attempt to buy an election with hundreds of millions of dollars disgusting. I would say the same thing if the money was going the other way.
But disgusting or not, the Constitution protects Musk’s right to donate money to whoever he wants, including pedophile-protecting, morally bankrupt, crooked politicians like Paxton.
Fundamentally, it’s his money. As a Libertarian, I have to say that people should be able to do what they want with their money.
The best we can do is hope it backfires. And I think it will.
Related Posts
October 11, 2026: Trafalgar Group Has Talarico 3.5 Points Ahead in Texas Senate Race
Also, there’s another favorable poll for Democrats in Maine.
October 13, 2026: Ken Paxton Partied in Dubai With Fugitives Ahead of Texas Senate Race
Two US citizens indicted for fraud partied with Paxton. They made huge donations.
October 15, 2026: Who Is Favored to Win the Senate in 6 Different Models
Here are 10 Senate races in 6 models, one of them mine.
well the good thing is, even if Paxton wins he is an honest, transparent, above the board, stand up type of guy.
we can rest assured it won’t affect any of his decisions.
do we need the /s?
Yes and he is loving and faithful to his wife. Must have some great leadership qualities and tremendous morals and values to be impeached by his own party. A real standup guy. On second thought, nearly the entire Republican Congress sold out Thomas Massie. Hmmm. Makes me wonder.
You’ll need the /s because businesswoman and Arthur “little hookers” Orwell would argue as much without a shred of irony.
> Fundamentally, it’s his money. As a Libertarian, I have to say that people should be able to do what they want with their money.
Does this apply to private islands or is there a line in the sand somewhere?
of course it will help. money always does. and musk is a hero in TX. i wonder how many offspring he will produce before he croaks. 100 or 1000 or 100000 bastards ? what a crackpot.
This is what is wrong with politics. Paxton is a corrupt amoral scumbag who is for sale to the highest bidder. But just because he has a ‘R’ next to his name people will still support him. Rational? At least he is not as bad other the other guy. What a great ‘democracy’.
The wheels are coming off the Trump Clown car bigly now, and its really quite funny because its all self induced. The guy is an idiot but with a rare ability to connect with half-wits- which is of course invaluable in politics
What a show!
Perhaps, this is the only way that trump and his boot lickers can win is to buy the elections. What a great example.
Mish,
I’ll be voting similar. No on my city’s attempt to establish an income tax. No on any public school levy – they take my money and provide almost nothing in return since we homeschool and use private schools, so they and the teacher’s unions can eat shit. And at the state level, I’ll either not be voting for Republicans or voting Libertarian.
Well, as I understand it, money beat Massie. I hope it beats the Democrats. Democracy can be appalling when you have a decadent population.
ahh Arthur comes out of his hole.
Wrong, the spending on Massie vs Gallrein was about even. You are correct that most of brain dead Gallrein money came from Isreali and MAGA PACs. Woo-hoo count that as a victory for democracy.
What other things do you want to get wrong from down under Arthur? Maybe things are getting lost in translation from the 8000 mile trip over to you.
Also this is the latest herr drumpf plan to go rally the MAGA true believers:
Truth Details | Truth Social
If this is inspiring confidence in you that MAGA money will save the house and senate, then you know less about American politics than I had imagined. Which wasn’t much.
These random pedophile defending comments wouldn’t be so funny if we didn’t have definitive proof that you are a pedophile who calls children, literal children, “hookers”. Funny how the racist guys always seem to think kids are strangely sexy.
https://mishtalk.com/economics/does-president-trump-have-any-idea-what-passports-are-for/#comment-449328