Musk contributed more than $150 million to bolster GOP in Texas Senate race, filings show文件显示，马斯克向共和党在德克萨斯州参议员竞选中捐款超过1.5亿美元。
New filings with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday are shedding light on tech billionaire Elon Musk’s heavy influence on the 2026 midterm elections, especially the blockbuster Senate race in Texas.
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New filings with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday are shedding light on tech billionaire Elon Musk’s heavy influence on the 2026 midterm elections, especially the blockbuster Senate race in Texas.
After contributing more than a quarter of a billion dollars to support President Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, Musk is reprising his role as a pillar of GOP operations.
According to the third quarter report from Senate Leadership Fund – the principal GOP super PAC targeting Senate races – Musk donated $75 million on September 9, and another $83 million on September 23.
That injection of more than $150 million appeared to flow directly to another group, Texas PAC, formed specifically for the unusually competitive Senate race in the state, where many of Musk’s business interests are based.
Musk has built a massive business empire in the state, centralizing operations for its companies SpaceX, Tesla, X, among others. In 2024, Musk relocated headquarters for X and SpaceX to Texas from California.
The Republican-aligned groups have backed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s bid against Democrat James Talarico in the closely contested race for the seat currently held by Republican Sen. John Cornyn.
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The filing shows that SLF transferred $75 million to Texas PAC on September 10 – exactly matching Musk’s donation to SLF, one day earlier – and another $83 million to Texas PAC on September 24 – also a day after Musk gave the same amount to SLF.
In September, the same time Musk’s money began flowing to Republicans, GOP ad support skyrocketed – Texas PAC spent more than $77 million on ads in the month alone, according to AdImpact data. And in total, including the September surge and bookings through Election Day, Texas PAC is set to spend nearly $160 million on ads backing Paxton.
The filings came the same day Talarico’s campaign touted raising a “record-breaking” $64 million in the third quarter of this year.
The previous quarterly record holder was former South Carolina Senate candidate Jaime Harrison in 2020, at $57.9 million, so Talarico has set a new record.
The amount brings the total Talarico has raised since launching his campaign in September 2025 to more than $134.3 million, his campaign added in a statement, sharing that an overwhelming majority of it came from small contributions.
Meanwhile, Paxton has raised $18 million in the third quarter through his campaign and affiliated committees. While Talarico may be leading in fundraising, Republicans continue to have a massive spending advantage and he is trailing in terms of money spent on TV.
Talarico’s race against Paxton is one of the most-watched contests on the map, and two new polls find no clear leader even as ad spending has surpassed half a billion dollars .
On Wednesday night, Talarico took the stage alone to take question from Texas voters in a town hall hosted by CNN and Jubilee, in which he vowed to “stand up to my own party” and “the other party” on energy policy and criticized “extremism” in both parties on immigration.
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周四提交给联邦选举委员会的新文件揭示了科技亿万富翁埃隆·马斯克对 2026 年中期选举的巨大影响力，尤其是对德克萨斯州备受瞩目的参议院选举的影响。
在为唐纳德·特朗普总统 2024 年总统竞选捐款超过 2.5 亿美元后，马斯克再次扮演了共和党运作支柱的角色。
根据参议院领导基金（共和党主要超级政治行动委员会，目标是参议院竞选）的第三季度报告，马斯克在 9 月 9 日捐赠了 7500 万美元，并在 9 月 23 日又捐赠了 8300 万美元。
这笔超过 1.5 亿美元的注资似乎直接流向了另一个团体——德克萨斯州政治行动委员会 (Texas PAC)，该委员会专门为德克萨斯州竞争异常激烈的参议院选举而成立，而马斯克的许多商业利益都位于该州。
马斯克在该州建立了一个庞大的商业帝国，旗下SpaceX、特斯拉、X等公司的运营都集中于此。2024年，马斯克将X和SpaceX的总部从加利福尼亚州迁至德克萨斯州。
与共和党结盟的团体支持德克萨斯州总检察长肯·帕克斯顿竞选共和党参议员约翰·科宁目前占据的席位，该席位的竞争非常激烈。
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文件显示，SLF 于 9 月 10 日向德克萨斯州政治行动委员会 (Texas PAC) 转账 7500 万美元——与马斯克前一天向 SLF 的捐款金额完全一致——并于 9 月 24 日再次向德克萨斯州政治行动委员会转账 8300 万美元——同样是在马斯克向 SLF 捐赠相同金额的第二天。
9月份，就在马斯克的资金开始流入共和党的同时，共和党的广告投入也激增——据AdImpact的数据显示，仅9月份，德克萨斯州政治行动委员会（Texas PAC）就在广告上花费了超过7700万美元。而算上9月份的这波支出激增以及选举日前的广告预订，德克萨斯州政治行动委员会预计将在支持帕克斯顿的广告上花费近1.6亿美元。
就在同一天，塔拉里科的竞选团队宣称，他们在今年第三季度筹集到了“破纪录的”6400万美元。
此前的季度筹款纪录保持者是前南卡罗来纳州参议员候选人杰米·哈里森，他在 2020 年的筹款额为 5790 万美元，因此塔拉里科创造了新的纪录。
塔拉里科的竞选团队在一份声明中补充说，这笔款项使塔拉里科自 2025 年 9 月启动竞选活动以来筹集的资金总额超过 1.343 亿美元，其中绝大多数来自小额捐款。
与此同时，帕克斯顿通过其竞选团队及其附属委员会在第三季度筹集了1800万美元。虽然塔拉里科在筹款方面可能领先，但共和党在支出方面仍然拥有巨大优势，而且他在电视广告支出方面落后于对手。
塔拉里科与帕克斯顿的竞选是选情最受关注的竞选之一，两项新的民意调查显示，尽管广告支出已超过 5 亿美元，但仍没有明显的领先者。
周三晚上，塔拉里科独自一人登上舞台，在 CNN 和 Jubilee 联合举办的市政厅会议上回答德克萨斯州选民的提问。他在会上誓言要在能源政策上“对抗自己的党派”和“对方党派”，并批评了两党在移民问题上的“极端主义”。