Ken Paxton
Elon Musk has all his hopes in this man
Updated 10/16/2026 – 1:58 p.mReading time: 4 minutes
Elon Musk is investing a large amount of money in a man’s election campaign. This is about personal interests.
Elections were in for decades Texas a sure thing for Republicans. If one of them competed there, they would ultimately win the state. But this certainty is now shaky. In the upcoming midterm elections, the party faces its first defeat in a state election in over 30 years.
In the fight for one of the two Texas Senate seats, Democrat James Talarico is leading in polls. But the Republicans are not yet giving up and are trying to help the Republican candidate Ken Paxton win with enormous financial effort.
They are supported by an extremely prominent entrepreneur: Elon Musk. The richest man in the world recently contributed $158 million to Paxton’s campaign. Why is Musk investing such a large amount of money in the fight for a single Senate seat?
Expenses on a previously unknown scale
Musk is currently extremely happy to donate. For the midterms, he has already donated a total of over $366 million to various super pacs. These are political action committees that accept and distribute election donations. That was more than the entire 2024 presidential election campaign, at which time it was $290 million. Even though recent donations only represent 0.04 percent of his wealth, the sums are enormous, especially when it comes to Texas.
Musk made two donations of $75 million and $83 million in September to Republican senators’ main super pac, the Senate Leadership Fund. Both times, the super Pac wrote a check the following day for the exact same amount to Texas Pac – a group the Senate Leadership Fund had set up to support Paxton.
Although it is not clear whether it was really Musk’s money that was passed on there, without Musk’s involvement such sums would hardly have flowed to Paxton. Musk also donated $10 million to a separate Super Pac that supports Paxton. The money was used to run television ads for the Republican. There are also millions more for Musk’s own Super Pac, who is also involved in the Texas election campaign.
Paxton with legal baggage
Paxton and Musk have had dealings with each other in the past. As Texas attorney general, Paxton previously investigated Musk’s opponents, such as the liberal organization Media Matters. Impeachment proceedings were opened against him in 2023 after he was accused of bribery, obstruction of justice and misuse of public resources in connection with the concealment of an extramarital affair.
