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Tech billionaire Elon Musk’s super PAC spent around $800,000 on House and Senate candidates in battleground states last month, according to a new disclosure released Wednesday evening.
Wednesday’s filing covers dozens of independent expenditures made by Musk’s America PAC from Aug. 18 to Aug. 31, with two additional outlays planned for Sept. 10.
The majority of Musk’s spending — more than $700,000 — was concentrated on Senate Republicans’ races: He spent over $247,000 in Texas to support state Attorney General Ken Paxton, $170,000 for Maine Sen. Susan Collins and $105,000 for Ohio Sen. Jon Husted, with additional expenditures in New Hampshire, Iowa, Alaska and Michigan.
The super PAC also contributed nearly $90,000 to several House races. He dropped $37,500 on races involving Pennsylvania Reps. Scott Perry, Ryan Mackenzie and Rob Bresnahan and $11,000 on Rep. Tom Kean Jr.’s race in New Jersey. The super PAC also spent around $10,000 each to boost New York Rep. Mike Lawler and Wisconsin Rep. Derrick Van Orden, and the same amount against Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Florida).
Musk poured hundreds of millions into the 2024 presidential cycle, making him one of the country’s most influential political donors. While the Tesla founder indicated last May that he would be spending “a lot less” on political campaigns in the future, Musk has authorized his super PAC to spend up to $120 million on a new field program to help elect Republicans in November, The New York Times reported in July.
House Speaker Mike Johnson met with the tech billionaire in Texas last week, though the speaker declined to describe their conversation in detail.
“He’s made public a lot of what he’s doing,” Johnson said when CBS News asked if he expected Musk to contribute to the midterms. “I’m not going to talk about our conversation on that point, but we’re going to win the midterms.”