Elon Musk set a record: The Tesla and SpaceX boss spent at least $474 million trying to elect Republican candidates in the midterms, the most money of any individual donor in a U.S. election cycle.
Musk particularly tried to help candidates in Texas, having moved to the Lone Star State in 2020, and having shifted the headquarters of Tesla, SpaceX and X to Texas, as well.
Then Tuesday’s blue tsunami happened. Democrats retook the House and Senate. James Talarico defeated Ken Paxton to become the first Texas senator elected in 36 years, while Gina Hinojosa surprisingly beat Greg Abbott for the Texas governor’s mansion.
In Wednesday’s early morning hours, shares of SpaceX and Tesla both tumbled around 6 percent in premarket trading.
Musk took to X to joke: “Guess my election-interfering space lasers didn’t work this time” along with a shrug emoji. He also posted, “Data centers in space looking pretty appealing right now.” According to Gizmodo, he also deleted a post that encouraged his followers to “vote red today.”
Not every candidate backed by Musk lost, however. According to Forbes, 18 Musk-backed candidates in lower races won their seats.
His space laser comment is a reference to a debunked conspiracy theory that circulated after Donald Trump’s 2024 election victory accusing Musk of having used his Starlink satellite network to somehow manipulate vote totals in Trump’s favor. The data centers refer to SpaceX’s controversial plan to put AI computer centers into orbit (and, presumably, away from states controlled by Democratic politicians — Hinojosa supports a moratorium on building AI data centers in Texas).
That said, Musk isn’t going to be hurting for cash anytime soon. According to The New York Times, Musk is still worth around $898 billion. So don’t worry, he’s fine.
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Source: The Hollywood Reporter · James Hibberd
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