Musk adds $76M to midterm push

Elon Musk has become the largest known donor of the 2026 midterms, giving at least $276 million to Republican groups since July — more than he spent on the 2024 presidential election. That includes $158 million to the Senate Leadership Fund, which was immediately funneled into a new group backing Ken Paxton in Texas's Senate race, plus $10 million to another pro-Paxton super PAC. His America PAC spent $76.7 million in Q3, with $35.8 million on a canvassing operation across all seven Senate battleground states and several House races.

Musk has extensive personal and business interests at stake — Tesla, SpaceX and his AI ventures face federal decisions on defense contracts, launch licenses, spectrum, autonomous vehicles and data centers. SpaceX alone has received at least $6.78 billion in federal work through Oct. 1 this year, nearly double all of 2024. Republican control of Congress helps preserve his influence and shields his companies from Democratic subpoenas and investigations.

Federal filings show Musk's America PAC spent $76.7 million in the third quarter of 2026, including $35.8 million on a field operation to turn out Trump's base across seven Senate battleground states and several House races.

Bloomberg reported SpaceX is in talks with cellular infrastructure firms to access at least 80,000 US sites as it pursues a fourth nationwide wireless carrier; shares of AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile fell 4-5% in extended trading on the news. This is a Politico headline/analysis piece about California oil politics, not a checkable factual claim. This is an event announcement for an Axios interview during F1 Grand Prix week in Austin.