Rogers Solicits Funds to “Protect Elon” — the Biggest Political Donor in History

The world’s first trillionaire, Elon Musk, recently took another record: He is now the largest single political donor in modern American history, according to an analysis by The Washington Post, after pouring nearly half a billion dollars into backing Republicans in this year’s midterm elections.

This has contributed to an enormous gap between Republican and Democratic political spending this cycle, with Republicans outspending Democrats by over $300 million as of last week. Musk’s spending in particular could be the edge in several tight races across the nation, like the race for Senate in Texas.

And at least one Republican candidate is seeking to return the favor. Michigan’s Democratic Party posted a leaked fundraising email on Monday from U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers that calls on supporters to back his campaign in order to “protect Elon.”

“When you stand with my Senate campaign today, you are directly shielding Elon Musk, protecting the movement to audit the federal government, and stopping this socialist retaliation plot dead in its tracks,” the email reportedly says.

“Please, make an immediate, urgent contribution right now to protect Elon and save America,” concludes the message, signed by Rogers.

The Democrats did not specify when this email was sent, but the Detroit Metro Times reported on an appeal with the same wording sent in July.

According to that report, the email is referring to a call by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-California) for Musk to be subpoenaed and for there to be “accountability” for his sweeping “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) actions that he took as a “special” government official early in Donald Trump’s second term. Khanna said that, among other things, Musk must answer for “the 4.5 million children around the world who he possibly sentenced to death by dismantling” the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Numerous court cases have found that Musk and DOGE’s gutting of the federal government broke the law, but Musk has faced little consequence or even congressional oversight of his actions, despite the vast impacts on the American public and the 14 million people abroad that his cuts are projected to kill by 2030. Though the sweeping cuts spurred by DOGE affected everything from Social Security to veterans’ care to cancer treatments, little is known by the public about Musk’s role in leading the illegal purge.

Still, Rogers’s fundraising email paints the call for accountability as a “socialist retaliation plot” in the style of “Soviet Russia and communist Cuba” that seeks to “destroy him.”

Rogers’s pledge to protect Musk comes as his campaign has benefited from Musk’s massive spending spree this election cycle.

Musk’s America PAC, of which he is the primary donor, has contributed $8.6 million to the Michigan Senate race. Roughly $5.2 million of that has been spent opposing Abdul El-Sayed, while $3.4 million has gone toward backing Rogers.

Musk also gave $158 million to the Senate Leadership Fund, Republicans’ super PAC for Senate races, this summer, representing one of the largest political donations in U.S. history. That PAC has been the biggest outside contributor in the Michigan Senate race, according to Detroit News, pouring $43.3 million into the race, the vast majority of which has been put toward opposing El-Sayed.