Elon Musk is expected to spend up to $200 million backing Ken Paxton’s Texas Senate campaign.
Paxton, the current Texas attorney general and Republican Senate nominee, is heading into the final stretch of the race at a severe fundraising disadvantage. His Democratic opponent, James Talarico, raised $68.6 million through June 30, more than seven times the $9.2 million Paxton’s campaign brought in over the same period. Talarico also held $21.5 million in cash at the end of June, compared to just $1.8 million for Paxton.
Despite that gap, the race is essentially tied. An Emerson College poll conducted August 9 and 10 shows Paxton leading Talarico 47% to 46% among likely voters. Eight nonpartisan public polls have the contest at a near dead heat.
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According to a report, officials briefed on the matter told Wired that Musk is planning to spend somewhere between $100 million and $200 million to support Republican candidates, with a specific focus on driving voter turnout in competitive races. The final figure could still shift.
Costas Panagopoulos, a distinguished professor of political science at Northeastern University, told the New York Post that Musk’s money could help Paxton close the gap, particularly if the spending targets ground-level get-out-the-vote operations. “It’s a considerable sum that has the potential to shake things up in certain races across the country,” Panagopoulos said. He added that while “money does not dictate outcomes in elections,” heavy spending can force opponents to burn through their own resources and “create communication imbalances that are hard to overcome.”
The approach mirrors what Musk did during the 2024 presidential cycle. He spent $288 million that cycle supporting Donald Trump and other Republican candidates. The bulk of that money flowed through America PAC, the super PAC Musk funded to help Trump win a second term. Filings from December 2025 show Musk contributed roughly $239 million to that organization, with a year-end filing adding another $11.2 million in in-kind spending tied to petition incentives. America PAC paid multiple third-party canvassing firms more than $46 million across battleground states, with a focused effort on reaching low-propensity voters.
Panagopoulos noted that Musk’s spending ambitions likely extend beyond Texas. He pointed to competitive Senate races in Georgia, Ohio, and Maine as other contests where a large outside investment could potentially shift the outcome in Republicans’ favor.
The Texas race between Paxton and Talarico has already drawn significant national attention given the stakes involved. Musk’s potential involvement adds another layer to what is already shaping up as one of the most closely watched Senate contests of the cycle.
