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Elon Musk gives about $158M to PAC backing Ken Paxton, report says

politicsOct 20, 2026713,533

Federal Election Commission filings show Elon Musk gave 158 million dollars in September to the Senate Leadership Fund, which immediately routed the money into an entity called Texas PAC that began running advertisements praising Texas attorney general Ken Paxton and attacking Democrat James Talarico. The filings and media tracking cited by the Texas Tribune show SLF has spent over 159 million dollars on TV, radio, and digital advertising, roughly double Talarico’s outlay, according to AdImpact. Talarico’s campaign has raised an estimated 134.3 million dollars from 1.3 million individual donors, 97 percent of whom gave 100 dollars or less, and Common Dreams notes Musk’s single donation exceeded what Talarico has raised since his September 2025 launch. Punchbowl News co-founder John Bresnahan asked how democracy functions when one person can donate 150 million dollars for one Senate race, and critics including Melanie D’Arrigo of the Campaign for New York Health and Public Citizen co-president Lisa Gilbert said the donation illustrates billionaire influence and the need to overhaul campaign finance rules. Author EW Niedermeyer and Princeton historian Kevin Kruse suggested Musk’s move reflects political motives tied to his companies’ presence in Texas and gave Talarico an attack line against Musk. Because SLF is the vehicle defending Republicans’ Senate majority, the disclosure that most of the advertised spending backing Paxton came from one donor concentrates scrutiny on both Paxton and the role of outside megadonors in the Texas race.

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