New filings with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday are shedding light on tech billionaire Elon Musk’s heavy influence on the 2026 midterm elections, especially the blockbuster Senate race in Texas.
After contributing more than a quarter of a billion dollars to support President Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, Musk is reprising his role as a pillar of GOP operations.
According to the third quarter report from Senate Leadership Fund – the principal GOP super PAC targeting Senate races – Musk donated $75 million on September 9, and another $83 million on September 23.
That injection of more than $150 million appeared to flow directly to another group, Texas PAC, formed specifically for the unusually competitive Senate race in the state, where many of Musk’s business interests are based.
Musk has built a massive business empire in the state, centralizing operations for its companies SpaceX, Tesla, X, among others. In 2024, Musk relocated headquarters for X and SpaceX to Texas from California.
The Republican-aligned groups have backed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s bid against Democrat James Talarico in the closely contested race for the seat currently held by Republican Sen. John Cornyn.
The filing shows that SLF transferred $75 million to Texas PAC on September 10 – exactly matching Musk’s donation to SLF, one day earlier – and another $83 million to Texas PAC on September 24 – also a day after Musk gave the same amount to SLF.
In September, the same time Musk’s money began flowing to Republicans, GOP ad support skyrocketed – Texas PAC spent more than $77 million on ads in the month alone, according to AdImpact data. And in total, including the September surge and bookings through Election Day, Texas PAC is set to spend nearly $160 million on ads backing Paxton.
The filings came the same day Talarico’s campaign touted raising a “record-breaking” $64 million in the third quarter of this year.
The previous quarterly record holder was former South Carolina Senate candidate Jaime Harrison in 2020, at $57.9 million, so Talarico has set a new record.
TX Senate race tops $500M in ad spending as GOP scrambles to save Paxton
The amount brings the total Talarico has raised since launching his campaign in September 2025 to more than $134.3 million, his campaign added in a statement, sharing that an overwhelming majority of it came from small contributions.
Meanwhile, Paxton has raised $18 million in the third quarter through his campaign and affiliated committees. While Talarico may be leading in fundraising, Republicans continue to have a massive spending advantage and he is trailing in terms of money spent on TV.
Talarico’s race against Paxton is one of the most-watched contests on the map, and two new polls find no clear leader even as ad spending has surpassed half a billion dollars.
On Wednesday night, Talarico took the stage alone to take question from Texas voters in a town hall hosted by CNN and Jubilee, in which he vowed to “stand up to my own party” and “the other party” on energy policy and criticized “extremism” in both parties on immigration.
