Texas Senate Spending: America PAC Files $76 Million Musk Transfer

Voters deciding the Texas Senate race will see a heavier volume of advertising before Election Day. America PAC reported spending $15.2 million on that contest during the first two weeks of October, with $12.4 million directed at Democrat James Talarico and $2.8 million at Republican Ken Paxton. The committee also disclosed $11.4 million in digital advertising during the same period.

The Federal Election Commission filing, submitted Thursday evening, reports that Elon Musk transferred more than $76 million to America PAC between Oct. 1 and Oct. 15. The committee spent nearly $43 million in that window and reported almost $47 million in cash on hand.

Musk has given more than $445 million to Republican political groups during this election cycle, according to an analysis of FEC filings, a figure that makes him the largest known individual donor in the midterms. More than $165 million has gone to America PAC since July. The PAC declined to comment.

Musk has posted about the race on X. On Wednesday, he wrote that "there is something deeply wrong with Talarico" and called the candidate "a creep," claiming without evidence that Talarico "would vote to take away your kids and transition them." Talarico answered the same day: "There is something deeply wrong with a political system that allows one trillionaire to buy his own personal US Senator."

An Emerson College poll of 1,000 likely Texas voters, conducted Oct. 17 to Oct. 19, showed Talarico at 48 percent and Paxton at 46 percent, within the poll's 3-point margin of error.

Representatives Sam Liccardo, Jimmy Panetta and Ro Khanna have asked the White House to investigate restrictions on SpaceX's Starshield satellite service in Ukraine. The three House members wrote that the next Congress "will closely scrutinize federal funding awarded to Mr. Musk's businesses." Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat, has called the number of Musk's conflicts of interest "astounding."