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Multibillionaire Elon Musk has authorized his super political action committee (PAC) to spend millions of dollars in this year’s midterm races, continuing a trend of huge investments seen in two recent election cycles.
Musk’s America PAC will spend between $100 million to $120 million in the next few months, focusing on Senate and House races across the U.S. The PAC will initially target races in Alaska, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, and Ohio, and is reportedly discussing possibly entering races in North Carolina, Georgia, Texas, California, Wisconsin, and Washington.
It’s expected that Musk will not have a front-facing role in these campaigns, a departure from his participation in the 2024 presidential election and a 2025 race in Wisconsin featuring a statewide Supreme Court contest. In both of those races, Musk was a featured player, frequently appearing on the campaign trail.
Musk was instrumental in helping Trump win the presidential election. But in 2025, after a heavy investment in the Wisconsin race resulted in an embarrassing loss for the billionaire, he said he would be doing “a lot less” political spending in the future.
According to reporting from Axios, the spending from Musk’s super PAC is meant to have a specific focus: to “boost Republican voter turnout” in the elections, the publication said. America PAC will prioritize knocking on doors, digital ads, and direct mailers that seek to bring more conservative voters to the polls.
The “get out the vote” priority could be helpful to Republicans, given the enormous enthusiasm gap between them and Democratic-leaning voters in this year’s races. A recent poll from Data for Progress also shows that efforts to “convert” swing voters may be difficult — among that group of people, 33 percent say they are already leaning toward backing Democratic options, versus 21 percent who say they are closer to supporting Republican ones.
Musk — the world’s richest person who currently has a net worth of around $700 billion — was a regularly seen personality in the previous campaigns he invested in, but his decision to play a more muted role this year may be due in part to recent findings from election officials in Wisconsin.
As part of his campaign to support the conservative candidate in the Wisconsin Supreme Court case in 2025, Musk handed out $100 checks to voters who signed a petition promising to oppose so-called “activist judges.” He also gave out three checks to voters in the state for $1 million, as part of a “lottery” to encourage people to sign the petition and to vote in that year’s spring race.
Earlier this month, the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) deemed those actions as likely in violation of state law. “Any person who…offers, gives, lends or promises to give or lend, or endeavors to procure, anything of value, or any office or employment or any privilege or immunity to, or for, any elector, or to or for any other person, in order to induce any elector to vote or refrain from voting” is guilty of a Class I felony, the statutes stipulate.
Even though Musk didn’t directly say the checks were contingent on which candidate voters backed, he still likely broke state law by incentivizing people to vote at all. If eventually charged and found guilty, Musk could be fined up to $10,000 and/or imprisoned up to 3.5 years.
The WEC forwarded its recommendations to Brown County District Attorney David Lasee, a Republican, who has yet to decide whether he’ll seek charges.
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