New York Times: Elon Musk Has Poured Over $276 Million into Republican Groups in Several Months / He Is Seeking to Preserve the Republican Senate Majority Through Payments, Among the Largest Political Donations in US History / Musk, Having Repaired Ties with Trump, Has Adopted a Non-Interventionist Approach to the Midterm Elections

The world's wealthiest person has quietly become the largest known financial donor to the midterm elections. He is seeking to preserve the Republican majority in the Senate through payments that rank among the largest financial contributions in American political history.

The New York Times wrote: The richest person in the world has quietly become the largest known donor of midterm elections; He is trying to maintain the Republican majority in the Senate by paying one of the largest donations in the history of American politics.

Elon Musk has shown less public interest in the election in recent months, but he has mended his relationship with President Donald Trump and quietly spent large sums to help Republicans in the midterm elections.

Since the beginning of July, Elon Musk has poured more than $276 million into his Republican and Superpac (Independent Political Action Committee) groups. His goal is to create a broad network to mobilize voters and help the Republican Party deal with unfavorable conditions in the midterm elections.

That impressive figure makes Musk, the world's richest person, by far the largest known midterm donor. Musk's representatives released previously undisclosed information about his political contributions to The New York Times ahead of Thursday's federal financial filing deadline.

This summer, Musk contributed a total of $158 million to the "Senate Leadership Fund" with the aim of helping Republicans maintain their majority in the Senate; Superpack, which is considered the most important financial supporter of Republican candidates in the Senate elections.

The total is one of the largest political donations in U.S. history, and more than the group's Democratic challenger collected from all its donors in the same quarter.

Musk has also built a large network for mobilizing Republican voters through America PAC, a super PAC he founded in 2024. He contributed more than 76 million dollars to this group this summer. America Pack has spent the same amount of money on a massive door-to-door campaign to try to get hard-to-reach Republican supporters to the polls.

This group is active in seven sensitive Senate races and nearly three dozen House of Representatives races.

Musk has donated about $366 million to federal political committees in the 2025 and 2026 election cycles; The figure is much more than what he spent in the 2024 elections. In that election, he spent about 290 million dollars to return Trump and the Republicans to power.

According to people with knowledge of Musk's donations, he also paid larger amounts in undisclosed contributions in both elections.

Musk's new wave of spending has given the Republican Party a financial edge; While well-funded outside groups, including Trump's powerful SuperPac, are spreading their ads widely in the media in the final weeks before the election.

No Democratic billionaire spends as much as Musk, and the lack of funding remains a major concern of the Democratic Party; A party that is in a favorable position for elections in terms of political conditions.

These contributions also clear up doubts about Musk's willingness to continue playing a role in American politics.

In May 2025, he said: "In terms of political spending, I will spend much less in the future."

Musk, who oversees a vast business empire whose businesses have benefited from massive federal contracts, has a reputation for being unpredictable, often jumping from project to project.

He has been much quieter about his political activities since his bitter public clash with Trump last year. After months of wielding extensive influence in the White House and overseeing the Trump administration's plan to cut spending, Musk has sharply criticized the president's major domestic policy bill and threatened to form a third party.

However, the relationship between these two men has warmed up again. They have appeared at three joint events in the past two weeks and have complimented each other.

Musk has now spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars helping Trump and the Republicans in the midterm elections.

These sums show his commitment to the political right and can make him an effective actor in the 2028 presidential election; He plans to remain active in the elections that his Superpack has announced. This is the first time the group has approved such a program.

In addition to contributions to his SuperPAC and the Senate Leadership Fund, Musk made smaller but still significant contributions to other conservative groups from July through September, Musk's representatives said:

* 20 million dollars to the Congressional Leadership Fund, the most important superpack supporting Republicans in the House of Representatives;

* $10 million to Lone Star Liberty PAC, a group that supports Ken Paxton, a Republican candidate for the Senate in Texas;

* $10 million to the Republican Governors Association;

* $2 million to the Republican Attorneys General Association.

America Pac spokesman Andrew Romeo said: "If Democrats take control of Washington in November and win key races for governor and attorney general, America will be in danger of becoming a socialist, wok, borderless country."

He added: "These massive investments have allowed the Republican establishment to get its message out to the public so that the Republican Party has a real chance to face the historic election process."

In Texas, campaign posters on voters' doorsteps carry a stark warning: "Radical Democratic Socialists are winning elections across America. Could Texas be their next destination?"

These advertising cards hung on the doors of houses are part of Musk's voter mobilization operation. American PAC officials say that this group had employed nearly 3,000 paid field forces across the country last week.

So far, America Pack has allocated most of its more than 76 million dollars spent in the mid-term elections to this face-to-face program and has spent smaller amounts on advertisements, sending letters, phone calls and text messages.

A significant portion of these messages are aimed at Democrats and sometimes contain misleading or exaggerated content.

According to samples of mail ads provided to The New York Times by the mail ad tracking firm Mintt, Musk's political operation is distributing material attacking a wide range of Democratic candidates. Some of these claims exaggerate the real positions of the Democrats or call them socialists, while these candidates themselves do not use such a title for themselves.

According to a person familiar with this conversation, this spring Trump's political advisors asked Musk to implement America Pac's field program in the 2024 election again.

Despite the difficult conditions of the Republicans, some strategists of this party believe that field activity can be decisive in very close contests.

America Pack relies on several companies active in the field of face-to-face voter contact to carry out its operations. According to people familiar with the operation, the companies compete fiercely for contracts and recruitment.

The turnover rate in the field advertising industry is high. An agent who worked for America Pac told The New York Times that in the Texas heat, he was paid between $1.50 and $3 for every door he knocked on.

America Pac says its forces have visited about 6.5 million homes across the country so far.

The Texas Senate race has drawn particular attention, according to people close to Musk and his team. This group has spent more than a third of its announced expenses in this costly competition; A figure higher than its cost in any other competition.

It's unusual to run a massive field campaign in large states like Texas, where television ads are typically preferred to reach voters.

Musk lives in Austin and has extensive business and real estate interests in Texas. Attorney General Paxton has previously investigated Musk's opponents, including the liberal group Media Matters.

Mask's $10 million contribution to Paxton's superpack took place at a critical moment; When the Republican candidate was far behind his rivals in terms of financial spending.