James Talarico, the Democratic Texas senator-elect, flipped the state in the midterms and won the most expensive Senate election to date. More than $573 million was spent on advertisements between Talarico, his Republican opponent Ken Paxton, and their aligned PACs, with a significant portion funded by Elon Musk.
Record-Breaking Spending and Historic Losses
As reported by The Verge, Musk spent more than $445 million supporting Republicans in the midterms, making him the biggest donor in American history and the 2026 election cycle. Most of that capital went to Texas, where he funneled over $168 million to super PACs supporting Paxton. Additionally, Musk’s America PAC received $216 million from him, and the committee spent $34.7 million of those funds in Texas, bringing his total spending in the state to more than $200 million.
Despite this massive financial backing, Talarico defeated Paxton by more than 12 points, becoming the first Democratic senator for Texas since 1988. The governor’s seat also flipped to the Democrats as Gina Hinojosa ousted Republican incumbent Greg Abbott, another recipient of Musk’s financial support. Nationally, Republicans underperformed during a difficult cycle for the party.
Talarico framed the contest as a struggle between the ultrarich and ordinary citizens. Paxton’s campaign raised $22.3 million in direct donations, vastly outpaced by Talarico’s $146 million from voters. Musk’s financial injection flooded Texas airwaves with anti-Talarico commercials, which frequently targeted culture war issues such as transgender people instead of policies directly concerning most voters. An analysis of America PAC spending by 19th News highlighted numerous anti-trans advertisements funded by Musk.
Political Fallout and Investigations
Musk maintained a quieter profile during this election cycle compared to his usual public spectacles, endorsing Paxton on X by writing that the fate of the nation and state hung in the balance. Talarico repeatedly highlighted the ties between Paxton and Musk during campaign events, pointing out that voting for Paxton meant benefiting Musk. According to a Wired report, Paxton has served as Texas attorney general since 2015 and launched investigations into organizations critical of Musk, following actions taken by the tech billionaire against entities like Media Matters and an advertising federation.
Musk also provided financial backing to Abbott, with whom he shares a close relationship. Hinojosa previously filed a lawsuit to review 1,400 pages of correspondence between Abbott and Musk. Furthermore, Abbott secured $300,000 from Anthropic cofounder Tom Brown alongside donations from data center developers as part of a pledge to establish Texas as an artificial intelligence hub.
Following the election results, Musk deleted a post encouraging people to vote red on Election Day and posted minimally on X, joking about placing data centers in space. Other states where Musk’s America PAC spent money also saw Democratic victories, including $10.4 million in Ohio and $9.8 million in Michigan, while Republicans secured only a narrow win in Florida.
The half a billion dollars Musk deployed across the midterms amounts to less than half a percent of his total net worth, rendering the financial loss negligible to him. While the outcome suggests that immense wealth cannot always control the electorate, it remains uncertain whether he will increase his spending in future election cycles.
