Turns out that while you can buy politicians, you have to do right by the people, and when you don't, you can't buy elections.
In the last couple of cycles, Elmo has thrown at least a billion dollars into a pile on the driveway, and set most of it on fire.
He deployed his wealth to elect Republicans. Their defeats raise questions about the limits of Musk’s political influence.
In the closing days of the midterm elections, Elon Musk, the largest individual political donor in modern American history, lobbed increasingly alarmist barbs about Texas U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico.
Musk, a Texas resident, said the Democrat sought to “open the borders” and “abolish democracy.” Talarico, he said, “will vote to trans your kids.”
But Texas voters on Tuesday resoundingly rejected that messaging, electing to send Talarico to the U.S. Senate.
“We just proved that all the money in the world is no match for the people of Texas,” Talarico declared in a victory speech, singling out Musk. “We just sent a message to every billionaire megadonor — every trillionaire megadonor.”
The win was part of a wave of Democratic victories that saw the party retake Congress — effectively neutralizing Musk’s massive political war chest and dealing the world’s richest man stunning defeats.
Musk had retreated from the political spotlight since serving in the Trump administration during the first half of 2025. Instead, he made the midterms a full-scale spending war against Democrats, deploying his fortune on a scale unprecedented in modern American politics.
He spent more than $400 million backing Republican candidates — eclipsing his contributions to President Donald Trump’s 2024 election — and used his massive platform on X to promote Republican campaigns and attack Democrats.
Early Wednesday, Musk lamented the results, writing, “Data centers in space looking pretty appealing right now,” before joking that his “election-interfering space lasers” had failed. He also reposted a warning that congressional investigations and heightened scrutiny could slow SpaceX’s progress. He reposted comments that appeared to blame the results in Texas and Georgia on demographic shifts. And he reacted to exit polling reflecting the centrality of the Iran war to voters, writing: “Interesting.”
The stakes were unusually high for the world’s richest person: Democrats had vowed to investigate Musk if they retook Congress, and Musk has mused about the possibility of political “vengeance” if they took power.
Days before the election, in a post pinned on his X account, Musk said a 2028 Democratic sweep would “result in America becoming a permanent one-party state and the end of democracy in any meaningful sense of the word.”
“That is why you should vote for Republican senators this election,” he said, appearing to allege without evidence that Democrats would use their victories to reshape the electorate.
The defeat in Texas is likely to sting for Musk, who relocated his residence and businesses out of California and into the Lone Star State following frustrations over covid-related closures in 2020. Musk found a welcoming regulatory and political environment among Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and Ken Paxton, the state’s attorney general. Tuesday’s results, including Abbott’s loss in the governor’s race to Democrat Gina Hinojosa, have reshaped the landscape.
Among Musk’s largest donations was $168 million allotted to the Senate Leadership Fund, a majority of which was transferred to a political action committee backing Paxton, Talarico’s opponent in the Senate race.
The results also raised questions about the political influence Musk — and his vast fortune — can wield. They marked the latest setback for the tech entrepreneur, whose tenure overseeing the U.S. DOGE Service ended in turmoil and whose increasingly prominent role in Republican politics made him a polarizing figure.
Musk’s spending on races across the country through the Senate Leadership Fund, Congressional Leadership Fund and his America PAC largely fell flat, as Republican candidates were defeated in Ohio, Maine and Texas.
For Musk, it continued a string of recent political defeats — including a 2025 Wisconsin Supreme Court race that Musk said “might decide the future of America and Western Civilization.” Musk’s midterm spending exceeded the roughly $290 million he put toward sending Trump back to the White House and electing other Republicans in 2024.
But the world’s richest person, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, kept a lower profile than in 2024 and early 2025, when he appeared alongside President Trump at campaign rallies and political events.
Musk urged his more than 240 million X followers to support Republicans on Tuesday.
“Vote red today!” he posted shortly after 9:30 a.m. Eastern time. By Wednesday, the post no longer showed up on Musk’s account and appeared to have been deleted.
Musk poured more than $400 million into the midterms, pushing Republican candidates through an array of political action committees focused on Senate and House races and on Texas. He emerged as the largest individual donor to the midterms less than two years after a public break with Trump.
Musk, a key Trump adviser during the early days of his second term, ultimately reconciled with the president — despite having accused him of being in the Jeffrey Epstein files. And he went all in for Republican candidates.
In some cases, Musk’s involvement appeared to backfire, presenting his opponents a tantalizing foil.
In the final days of the campaign, Talarico compared the race to a David-and-Goliath battle, casting Musk and other wealthy donors as the powerful forces arrayed against him.
“We are going up against our own Goliaths — those billionaire megadonors, those corporate PACs, the entire Washington D.C. establishment,” he said. “On Nov. 3, those goliaths aren’t going to know what hit them.”
On Tuesday, the world’s richest person appeared to have been dealt a blow.
“Tonight we defeated Goliath,” Talarico declared.
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