A super PAC started by Elon Musk, the Trump-boosting billionaire owner of the social media platform X and the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, has poured $8.2 million into key congressional races in a bid to preserve House Republicans’ majority in November, federal campaign finance records show.
The political action committee, dubbed America PAC, has spent more than $77 million in support of former President Donald Trump and against Vice President Kamala Harris. Musk’s PAC is leading Trump’s get-out-the-vote efforts in the key swing state of Wisconsin, the Associated Press reported. And on Sunday, Musk said America PAC would give $47 to anyone who gets registered voters in seven swing states to sign a petition pledging “support for the First and Second Amendments.”
But Musk, who took the stage with Trump at a Pennsylvania rally over this weekend, also appears to be aiming to help Republicans in the House. The $8.2 million has been spread across 18 races in 11 states, with funds going to mailers, canvassing operations and digital advertising, federal records show. America PAC says it is hiring canvassers starting at $30 an hour on its website.
The super PAC has spent the most money, nearly $1 million, on the race in New York’s 17th Congressional District, where freshman GOP Rep. Mike Lawler is being challenged by former one-term Democratic Rep. Mondaire Jones to represent portions of the Hudson Valley north of New York City. Jones has pointed to Musk’s support of Lawler as a rallying cry to raise funds and garner support, calling tech CEO an “extreme MAGA billionaire.”
“Commonsense problem solver, Mike Lawler is fighting to bring tens of millions of federal dollars back [to] the Hudson Valley,” the PAC wrote in a social media post last month. “He’s working for NY families. Stand with him and vote for Lawler!”
Further north, in New York’s 19th Congressional District, America PAC has spent around $570,000 defending another New York freshman Republican, Marc Molinaro, against his Democratic challenger Josh Riley. Molinaro’s campaign has cited the South African immigrant’s hardline position on immigration and border security as they welcomed his support. Riley’s campaign manager called Musk a “billionaire grifter.”
The second most money spent on a House race has gone to supporting longtime Rep. Ken Valvert in California’s 41st district in the Inland Empire. Calvert is being challenged in the heavily competitive district by Democrat Will Rollins, a former federal prosecutor who ran against Calvert in 2022. Two other California districts, the 22nd and the 45th, have seen a combined $1 million spent in favor of Republican candidates.
Another $1.1 million has been spent on two Ohio races and around $870,000 has been spent on three races in the swing state of Michigan.
Musk said on Saturday his PAC is supporting “candidates who believe in the core values of America,” which the committee lists as “secure borders, safe cities, free speech, sensible spending, fair justice system and self-protection.”
James Singer, a Harris campaign spokesperson, responded to a Business Insider report highlighting the congressional spending by writing that the “populist” Republican Party was “being funded by [the] world’s richest man.”
How much money Musk has personally invested in the PAC is unclear, though more details will be made public by an Oct. 15 deadline. However, federal records from earlier this year show $1 million donations to America PAC apiece from Jimmy John’s founder James John Lautaud, coal billionaire Joe Craft, billionaire venture capitalist Douglas Leone, tech investor Joe Lonsdale and former Tesla executive Antonio Gracias. Former Trump administration Ambassador to Sweden Ken Howery, a PayPal co-founder, and the Winklevoss twins, billionaire cryptocurrency investors, also donated to the PAC.