Musk makes light of defeats after record spend on Republican candidates

What the report says

Elon Musk has responded with jokes on social media after Republican candidates he supported suffered major defeats in the US midterm elections, according to Al Jazeera. The article said Musk, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX and the owner of X, had spent about $446 million backing Republican campaigns, making him the largest individual donor in the contest. Republicans lost control of both the Senate and the House, and also fell in states that are usually strongly Republican, including Texas and Kansas.

Al Jazeera reported that Musk’s biggest focus was Texas, where his spending went largely through his America PAC and the Republican-aligned Senate Leadership Fund. That money supported Ken Paxton in the Texas Senate race, but he lost to Democrat James Talarico. The race also became a debate over whether Texas should rapidly expand data centres and position itself as a hub for artificial intelligence. Talarico pushed for tighter regulation, while voters rejected Paxton’s approach.

The report also said Musk backed the Republican candidate for Texas governor, but that Democrat Gina Hinojosa won that race too, defeating incumbent Greg Abbott despite Musk’s donation. Talarico later referenced Musk in his victory speech. More broadly, the article placed the spending in the context of US campaign finance rules that have allowed large independent donations since a 2010 Supreme Court ruling.