When Elon Musk left his stint as a special government employee last year, he was among the least popular figures in American politics.
His time running DOGE, or the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which took a sledgehammer to the federal workforce and seemed to threaten Americans’ prized Social Security benefits, had soured the public on the entrepreneur. And after his attempt to influence a state Supreme Court race in Wisconsin ended in disaster and he clashed with members of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, he also wore out his welcome among D.C. elites.
He has now returned to the political scene to provide unprecedented backing for one of the most flawed candidates in recent political history: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Campaign finance reports filed Thursday show Musk provided all of the $158 million a super PAC has spent to back Paxton in his Senate race against Democratic state Rep. James Talarico, an amount Republicans privately concede is the only reason Paxton is competitive in the contest.
Musk’s donations, which solved a standoff between Senate Republicans and President Donald Trump over who would raise money for a candidate who could not keep up with Talarico’s fundraising on his own, appear to be the largest amount a single donor has ever spent backing a non-presidential candidate in the United States. And Paxton is quite the recipient: His infidelity, far-right politics and corruption indictments have made him a uniquely weak candidate, and he’s now favored to become the first Republican to lose statewide in Texas in three decades.
Musk’s cash came in two large donations — one for $75 million on Sept. 9, and one for $83 million on Sept. 23 — to the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC controlled by allies of Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.).
SLF, as it is known, then transferred the money to Texas PAC, another super PAC that has aired ads boosting Paxton and attacking Talarico as too liberal.
The pairing of an unpopular billionaire and weak candidate delighted Democratic operatives working against Paxton.
“After being indicted and impeached, it’s not shocking Ken Paxton could find only one single person on the planet to fund his efforts,” said Garry Jones, the executive director of Lone Star Rising PAC, a pro-Talarico group.
Musk’s money has allowed Paxton, who raised just $18 million to Talarico’s $60 million in the third quarter, to keep pace with television ads and other paid media. However, since candidates are allowed to buy ads at lower rates than outside groups, his cash has not been able to swamp Talarico on the airwaves — through the end of September, Republicans had spent 32% more than Democrats on broadcast ads in the state but had only aired 8% more ads, according to AdImpact.
“The optics of having a single billionaire buy a race are not very good.”
– Democratic operative
So far, Democrats have not turned Musk’s presence in Texas or in other races — his America PAC has spent more than $75 million on races around the country — into a major issue, the way Wisconsin Democrats did when Musk poured tens of millions of dollars into a state Supreme Court race there in 2025. But one Democratic operative working on the Texas Senate race said the sheer size of Musk’s donations could change that.
“The optics of having a single billionaire buy a race are not very good, especially for a candidate like Paxton who already has major trust issues with the electorate,” said the operative, who requested anonymity so speak frankly about the race, adding he expected Democrats would test anti-Musk messaging with polling soon.
Musk no longer seems to be as unpopular as he was 17 months ago, though he’s far from beloved. An Economist/YouGov poll released earlier this week found 39% of registered voters had a favorable opinion of him, while 55% had an unfavorable opinion.
Compared to Musk’s efforts ahead of the 2024 presidential election and the Wisconsin race — where he would hold town halls and raffles while campaigning — he has stayed out of the public eye ahead of the midterms, limiting his appearances to bashing Talarico on X, the social media platform he owns.
