Elon Musk is now a mega-donor unlike anyone this country has ever seen

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More than $16 billion and counting has been raised during the 2026 election cycle, according to an early October tally by the Federal Election Commission .

Most of that money flowed not through candidates or political parties, but rather through political action committees.

That includes massive spending by Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, who is also likely to be the election’s largest spender as he tries to save Republican majorities in the House and Senate.

There is spending by rich people on the left — George Soros and Michael Bloomberg will be among the biggest spenders of the cycle. But their spending has been dwarfed by the big-dollar contributions funneled to the political right. And it may be months or years before we get a better accounting of money that flowed through dark money groups facing even more limited disclosure requirements than PACs.

I went to CNN’s Fredreka Schouten for more on what we know so far this year about campaign spending.

SCHOUTEN: Right now, it’s Republicans — particularly when it comes to Senate races.

All year long, we’ve seen individual Democratic candidates for the House and Senate outperform their GOP rivals. But the big money began arriving this fall to help Republicans. And, boy, has it ever.

Just look at the two super PACs active in Senate races. The Democratic-aligned Senate Majority PAC is touting that it has raised $354 million this cycle, a record for the group. Not shabby.

But SLF, also known as Senate Leadership Fund, the main super PAC working to elect Republicans to the Senate, raised more than $540 million.

At the same time, billionaire Elon Musk and groups aligned with President Donald Trump are putting tens of millions of dollars into races to help Republicans.

Our colleague David Wright, who tracks political advertising closely, has reported on one advantage for Democrats facing a Republican money onslaught: Democratic dollars are going further.

Why? The GOP is relying more heavily on super PACs that pay elevated rates for advertising, and they have made their buying decisions later when ad inventory is stretched.

SCHOUTEN: Elon Musk.

The world’s richest man is also the largest single disclosed donor of this election cycle. His giving powered past the $400 million mark as of mid-October, the newest reports show. And the election isn’t over yet. So, we don’t have a full tally of his impact.

But keep in mind that it was a big deal when he spent about $290 million in the 2024 election to help elect President Donald Trump and Republicans.

Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images

He’s now a mega-donor unlike anyone this country has ever seen.

In September, for instance, the billionaire gave a total of $158 million to SLF in two tranches, and the money appeared to immediately flow to another group, Texas PAC. That group, in turn, has spent heavily to boost Republican Ken Paxton over Democrat James Talarico in a heavily contested Senate race.

If Paxton wins, Musk is definitely one of the people he’ll have to thank for it.

Not long ago, Musk was talking about breaking from Republicans and starting his own party, after publicly feuding with the president. But his spending shows that he’s back in the Republican fold.

Another big story is the spending affiliated with Trump. His MAGA Inc. super PAC had built big cash reserves all year as Republican fretted about losing their House and Senate majorities.

Then in September, the Trump-aligned money started flowing to help Republicans, including Paxton. MAGA Inc. also funds two new super PACs with innocuous-sounding names, No Going Back PAC and Safety & Affordability PAC, that are active in the midterms.

Those super PAC titles don’t exactly scream to voters that the ads they are running are tied to Trump, a president headed into the midterms with historically low approval ratings.

The president recently said his political machine is on track to spend $400 million by Election Day to help rescue the GOP majorities in Congress. He has the money to do that.

The GOP outpouring has caused some panic among Democrats on Capitol Hill, as our colleagues Sarah Ferris and Patrick Svitek recently reported .

Enter former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who traditionally gets involved in races late. The billionaire’s team recently announced a last-minute $80 million infusion to help Democrats.

SCHOUTEN: The billionaire is a traditionally major source of funding for Democrats. His political operation, now overseen by his son Alex, has funneled more than $100 million into Democracy PAC and Democracy PAC II, the super PACs it controls.

Those PACs give money to other left-leaning PACs, such as the Fulcrum PAC — which is active in what could be the sleeper race of the election, an unexpectedly competitive US Senate contest in deep-red Mississippi .

It is a lot of money, but Soros is not the biggest player that we know about in this election.

SCHOUTEN: Really rich people and companies. For example, in September alone, just three people accounted for three-quarters of the $24 million that MAGA Inc., took in that month: Casino mogul Steve Wynn ($8 million), Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman ($5 million) and Wisconsin roofing billionaire Diane Hendricks ($5 million).

GEO Reentry Services, the subsidiary of a private prison company with federal contracts to operate US Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities, also donated $1 million to MAGA Inc. that month.

Zach, you did a deep dive into some of the people who have donated to MAGA Inc. and other Trump-related projects.

WOLF: That was back in June and I was specifically looking at what MAGA Inc. contributors might want from the federal government.

SCHOUTEN: This is the first big election since the explosion of artificial intelligence. We are seeing lots of political ads generated using AI that are cheap to produce but can blur reality. It’s super-easy to show candidates in unflattering situations that never even happened. And the federal government hasn’t caught up with regulation the technology.

We recently took a closer look at the trend.

WOLF: Reporting on this feels like a puzzle — piecing things together after the fact from FEC reports. What are you most interested to learn after the election?

SCHOUTEN: We’ll come closer to having a final accounting of the publicly disclosed donations, though it’s hard to imagine any single person will top Musk. We’ll also have a better handle on how untraceable money –— donations from nonprofits and shell companies — shaped the election, although there’s often a long delay in uncovering that information.

Finally, the election outcome itself will tell us who made the smart bets — or maybe just made consultants and others in the political ecosystem rich.

CNN’s David Wright contributed reporting.

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根据联邦选举委员会 10 月初的统计，2026 年选举周期中已筹集超过 160 亿美元，而且还在不断增加。

这些资金大部分并非通过候选人或政党流向政治行动委员会。

这其中包括世界首富埃隆·马斯克的巨额支出，他很可能也是此次选举中最大的支出者，因为他试图保住共和党在众议院和参议院的多数席位。

左翼富豪们也在进行政治支出——乔治·索罗斯和迈克尔·布隆伯格将是本轮选举周期中支出最多的几位。但他们的支出与流入右翼政治阵营的巨额捐款相比，简直是小巫见大巫。而且，我们可能需要数月甚至数年的时间，才能更清楚地了解那些通过“黑钱”组织流动的资金情况，这些组织的披露要求甚至比政治行动委员会（PAC）还要严格。

我采访了 CNN 的 Fredreka Schouten，了解今年到目前为止我们对竞选支出的了解情况。

舒滕：目前来看，共和党人占据优势——尤其是在参议院竞选方面。

一整年，我们都看到民主党众议院和参议院候选人的表现优于他们的共和党对手。但今年秋天，大量资金开始涌入，帮助共和党人。而且，共和党的确取得了巨大的成功。

看看活跃在参议院选举中的两个超级政治行动委员会就知道了。与民主党结盟的参议院多数党政治行动委员会宣称，本轮选举周期已筹集到3.54亿美元，创下该组织的历史纪录。成绩相当不错。

但 SLF（又称参议院领导基金）——致力于帮助共和党人当选参议员的主要超级政治行动委员会——筹集了超过 5.4 亿美元。

与此同时，亿万富翁埃隆·马斯克和与唐纳德·特朗普总统结盟的团体正在向竞选活动投入数千万美元，以帮助共和党人。

我们的同事大卫·赖特密切关注政治广告，他报道了民主党在面对共和党资金猛攻时的一个优势：民主党的资金使用得更充分。

为什么？共和党越来越依赖超级政治行动委员会，这些委员会支付更高的广告费用，而且他们往往在广告库存紧张的时候才做出购买决定。

舒滕：埃隆·马斯克。

世界首富同时也是本次选举周期中公开披露的最大单笔捐款人。最新报告显示，截至10月中旬，他的捐款额已超过4亿美元。而选举尚未结束，因此我们目前还无法全面统计他的捐款影响。

但别忘了，他在 2024 年大选中花费了约 2.9 亿美元来帮助唐纳德·特朗普总统和共和党人当选，这可是件大事。

安吉拉·韦斯/法新社/盖蒂图片社

他现在是这个国家前所未有的超级捐赠者。

例如，9月份，这位亿万富翁分两笔向SLF捐赠了总计1.58亿美元，而这笔钱似乎立即流向了另一个组织——德克萨斯政治行动委员会（Texas PAC）。该组织随后投入巨资，在竞争激烈的参议院选举中支持共和党候选人肯·帕克斯顿（Ken Paxton）对抗民主党候选人詹姆斯·塔拉里科（James Talarico）。

如果帕克斯顿获胜，马斯克绝对是他要感谢的人之一。

不久前，马斯克还在公开与总统发生争执后，扬言要脱离共和党，组建自己的政党。但他的支出表明，他已经重回共和党阵营。

另一个大新闻是与特朗普相关的支出。由于共和党担心失去众议院和参议院的多数席位，他的“让美国再次伟大”（MAGA）超级政治行动委员会全年都在积累巨额资金储备。

随后在9月份，与特朗普结盟的资金开始流入共和党，帮助包括帕克斯顿在内的共和党人。MAGA公司还资助了两个名字听起来无害的新超级政治行动委员会，分别是“不回头政治行动委员会”（No Going Back PAC）和“安全与可负担性政治行动委员会”（Safety & Affordability PAC），这两个委员会在中期选举中都很活跃。

这些超级政治行动委员会的名称并没有直接向选民表明，他们投放的广告与特朗普有关，而特朗普总统在中期选举中的支持率正处于历史低位。

总统近日表示，他的政治机器正按计划在选举日前花费4亿美元，以帮助共和党保住国会多数席位。他有足够的资金做到这一点。

正如我们的同事 Sarah Ferris 和 Patrick Svitek 最近报道的那样，共和党人的强烈反应引起了国会山民主党人的恐慌。

前纽约市市长迈克尔·布隆伯格也加入了竞选行列，他一贯喜欢在选举后期才介入。这位亿万富翁的团队最近宣布，将在最后一刻注资8000万美元，以帮助民主党人。

舒滕：这位亿万富翁一直是民主党的主要资金来源。他的政治运作现在由他的儿子亚历克斯负责，已向其控制的两个超级政治行动委员会——民主政治行动委员会和民主政治行动委员会二号——输送了超过1亿美元。

这些政治行动委员会会向其他左倾的政治行动委员会捐款，例如 Fulcrum PAC——该委员会积极参与了可能是本次选举中一场出人意料的竞争激烈的美国参议院选举，这场选举发生在深红州密西西比州。

这笔钱数额巨大，但据我们所知，索罗斯并不是这次选举中最大的参与者。

舒滕：都是些真正富有的人和公司。例如，仅在9月份，MAGA公司当月收入的2400万美元中，四分之三就落入了三个人手中：赌场大亨史蒂夫·韦恩（800万美元）、黑石集团首席执行官史蒂芬·施瓦茨曼（500万美元）和威斯康星州屋顶业亿万富翁黛安·亨德里克斯（500万美元）。

GEO Reentry Services 是一家私营监狱公司的子公司，该公司与联邦政府签订合同，负责运营美国移民和海关执法局的设施。当月，该公司也向 MAGA Inc. 捐赠了 100 万美元。

扎克，你深入调查了一些向 MAGA Inc. 和其他与特朗普相关的项目捐款的人。

沃尔夫：那是六月份的事了，我当时主要在研究“让美国再次伟大”（MAGA）组织的捐助者们可能希望联邦政府提供什么。

舒滕：这是人工智能爆发式发展以来的首次大型选举。我们看到大量利用人工智能生成的政治广告，这些广告制作成本低廉，但却会模糊事实。让候选人出现在从未发生过的、有损形象的场景中非常容易。而联邦政府在监管这项技术方面仍然滞后。

我们最近对这一趋势进行了更深入的研究。

沃尔夫：报道这件事感觉就像在拼拼图——事后根据联邦选举委员会的报告把各种信息拼凑起来。选举结束后，你最想了解什么？

舒滕：我们将更接近于获得已公开披露捐款的最终统计结果，尽管很难想象会有任何一个人的捐款额超过马斯克。我们也会更好地了解那些无法追踪的资金——来自非营利组织和空壳公司的捐款——如何影响了选举，尽管发现这些信息往往需要很长时间。

最终，选举结果本身将告诉我们谁做出了明智的选择——或者只是让政治生态系统中的顾问和其他人发了财。

CNN记者大卫·赖特对此报道亦有贡献。