Nov.02

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Musk Is Spending Nearly Half a Billion Dollars on the Midterms

After the disastrous Wisconsin Supreme Court election, Elon Musk said he was getting out of politics. But he's pretty fickle and soon got back in—to the tune of $446 million. That is what he has spent this year.

Musk dumped $25 million on the Wisconsin race and his candidate was crushed. But he has so much money, he doesn't even notice losing $25 million or even $446 million. It's just peanuts to him, but in some cases it could flip a race. He has dumped money in 40 House and Senate races of interest to him. Being chronically online himself, Musk has little regard for traditional television advertising. This is how his main personal PAC, America PAC, has spent $216 million. He likes digital ads but oddly enough, also flyers sent to voters. Most of the rest of the money went to the official Republican House and Senate PACs:

So far, more of Musk's money has gone to Texas than any other state. It has been $168 million so far, an enormous amount for one state in a midterm election. Most of that has gone to negative ads about James Talarico. This should give you an idea about the focus:

Look at the ad closely. Talarico is on baseball Team Woke, along with a Black player and a Latino player. And all of the strikes are about gender, especially transgender. That's all Musk has to work with. Talarico works with Black people and Latinos and supports trans people. He's not a Real American like you. That's the entire message. Note that strike two is about men playing on girls teams, not boys. Maybe someone, somewhere has proposed adult men playing on high school girls' teams, but if so, we missed it. Nothing about how Ken Paxton will lower gas prices or get the Epstein files out there. Nobody would believe that, of course. So this is where campaigns are now.

By making himself the poster child for billionaires buying elections, Musk may be inadvertently helping Democrats get rid of megadonors altogether if they get the trifecta in 2028. They could write a bill banning all campaign spending in excess of the current $3,500 limit per candidate per election and $5,000 limit to the party committees. It would be a three-step process:

1. Create a carve-out in the Senate rules so bills on campaign finance can't be fillibustered.
2. Strip the Supreme Court of its appellate jurisdiction on campaign finance cases and make it a felony for a justice to vote on any issue Congress has banned the Court from taking.
3. Pass the campaign-finance bill.

There is nothing above a Democratic trifecta couldn't do, if the Democrats have the nerve. It is just possible though that using an unbridled Musk as a boogeyman, it might be possible. (V)