Elon Musk’s Political Fortunes Run Into a Blue Wave
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Money can’t buy everything—even for the world’s richest man.
Voters made that clear Tuesday when Elon Musk’s political power was delivered a stunning blow. He had poured more than $440 million into races to support Republican candidates only to see Democrats gain control of both the House and Senate.
In the most bruising defeat of the night for Musk, Senate candidate James Talarico beat Republican Ken Paxton in Texas , becoming the first Democrat to win a statewide election in 32 years.
Musk, a Texas resident, spent more than $150 million on that race alone, fueling a barrage of television ads highly critical of Talarico in an attempt to rescue Paxton’s troubled campaign. The effect appears to have backfired, helping fuel enthusiastic Talarico supporters who, in the days leading up to the election, said they were put off by Musk’s involvement.
“We just proved that all the money in the world is no match for the people of Texas,” Talarico said in a victory speech in Austin, Texas, that alluded to Musk but didn’t outright name him.
As the results rolled late into the night, many turned to Musk’s own social-media network, X, to see how he might respond. Eventually, he joked : “Guess my election-interfering space lasers didn’t work this time.”
Even before the blue wave hit, Democrats had signaled that, if put into power, they planned to use their expansive authority in Congress to target the Tesla TSLA -3.60% decrease; red down pointing triangle and SpaceX SPCX -3.35% decrease; red down pointing triangle chief executive along with President Trump.
They want to look at Musk’s role in cutting government spending during the early days of the Trump administration as head of the Department of Government Efficiency and how he may have limited Ukraine’s use of SpaceX’s satellites in its war with Russia.
One prominent Democrat has even called on nationalizing SpaceX. A government takeover of Musk’s companies is an unlikely outcome but such rhetoric—cheered on in some corners—underscores the animosity Musk has stoked among Democrats after helping put Trump back in office two years ago.
Musk appears to realize that battles are ahead.
“Live by the sword, die by the sword,” Musk posted on X ahead of the election amid Democrats calling for investigations. “Those who pick fights with me should understand that I will find out who is really pulling the strings and come for them, not just their puppets.”
The risk for Musk and his companies is that he becomes distracted with political knife fights on Capitol Hill at a sensitive moment. After SpaceX’s historic record-setting IPO—and a string of high-profile milestones from building a cloud business to showing off a flying car—SpaceX and Tesla are considering a merger . In recent days, Trump has even suggested he would consider a pardon for allies such as Musk.
For most of his adult life, Musk wasn’t considered political. That changed with the pandemic and how he later felt Democrats mistreated him. He relocated SpaceX’s and Tesla’s headquarters to Texas from California after skirmishes with Democrats in the Golden State.
His very public embrace of Trump—shortly after the failed assassination attempt in Butler, Pa., during the 2024 campaign—helped attract excitement to the campaign. Musk acted as if he was on the ballot, holding campaign events of his own across Pennsylvania, a key battleground state. He drew large crowds, including many young men who said they were inspired by Musk and wanted to hear about his plans for Mars and how he could take his business know-how to Washington.
Eventually, other tech leaders followed Musk’s lead and tried to curry favor with Trump. Some of the biggest names in tech, including Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, joined Musk on stage at Trump’s inauguration in 2025.
But Musk held a special spot. For an unprecedented few months, he was something of a fixture at the White House as “ First Buddy ” while overseeing DOGE. He and Trump were often photographed palling around and Musk seemed to almost take up residence in his government office as he cut programs, such as the U.S. Agency for International Development .
In the end, Musk’s efforts to cut government spending failed to live up to the hype . And the bromance was short lived as Musk’s antics in Washington, D.C., including waving a chain saw around at an event, became a distraction and the perception of his actual political influence began to fade. He failed to recapture the 2024 success in a 2025 Wisconsin state supreme court election where his heavy involvement was seen as a political liability.
By spring of that year, Musk had a very public falling out with Trump only to be later brought back into the fold. His money then began helping Republican midterm races.
In recent weeks, Musk said he got carried away the first time around, to the frustration of some of his investors and customers. “What I should have done, I think, was be more in the background,” he said last month in a podcast with Walter Isaacson, his biographer.
All of which helps explain why Musk stayed off the trail this fall and looked more like a traditional deep-pocketed donor. He spent more than $440 million on the midterms—significantly more than the close to $300 million he spent in 2024.
While he wasn’t out campaigning, he used his social-media bully pulpit, especially against Talarico. Musk made or retweeted around 60 posts naming Talarico, including one that called him “Pure evil.”
For his part, Talarico carefully embraced Musk as a foil. During Texas campaign stops in Fort Worth, Texarkana and Tyler, for example, Talarico almost appeared to be running against Musk instead of Paxton.
“ Elon Musk wants our land, he wants our water, he wants our taxpayer dollars and he wants his very own personal United States Senator,” Talarico said in Tyler to a crowd of almost 2,000 supporters.
The audience’s visceral jeers at the mention of “Elon” were telling. In total that night, Talarico called out “Elon” almost as many times as he said his actual opponent’s name.
In those final days before Election Day, Musk, in many ways, had become the face of what troubled voters: They said they were unhappy with the income inequality , rise of artificial intelligence and Big Tech’s influence on the White House.
At the Fort Worth event, 29-year-old office manager Phil Pruitt, who once supported Trump and counted himself a fan of Musk, said he felt differently now. He was put off by the amounts of money Musk was putting into the race.
“These tech bros have this attitude where they know everything and that’s just, like, completely what I’m not for,” he said. “The thing I’m most passionate about is just really caring for people.” He added, “Politically-wise, just where we are at now, there’s no empathy.”
Now, Musk will see how much empathy Democrats have for him.
Tags
Who is online
97 visitors
"Now, Musk will see how much empathy Democrats have for him."
If anyone is in need of empathy it's a trillionaire burdened by his ego ...
tsk, tsk, tsk, all those unfortunate california republicans that moved their families and businesses to texas for a fascist paradise ...
that makes me laugh...hahaha
I was at an opening of a new restaurant in my town and I talked to one of people involved in the business. He claimed he was originally from California but was glad to be in Arkansas because of the politics. I looked him right in the eye and told him he was barking up the wrong tree and that I wanted to turn Arkansas at least purple. He walked away
goobers assuming I was also a racist dipshit used to happen to me all the time when I was in texas.
Glad to see him go.
Yeah but he brought his shitty attitude to my town
OK, well, just don't send him back.
hopefully you had already ordered and eaten your food before talking to him ...
Thankfully, for a better world in which to live.
Imagine being able to throw away 440m and barely even noticing it. He can go Fusk himself.
he's even more of a national security risk to america now ...
Musk is almost as mentally unstable as Trump is. I wonder if he will cut back on his white supremacy posts on his twitterX now.
I wouldn't hold your breath, racism is his heritage ...
Musk and Trump are at opposite ends of the spectrum. One likely has a very high IQ but clearly no morals or ethics, and the other has the intelligence of a sea sponge and also has no morals or ethics.
I don't think musk has a high IQ. He never really produced anything and he certainly never invented anything. I also think he's on the Autism Spectrum
ding, ding, ding!!! We got ourselves a winner, folks.
Had the scare of my life this morning. When I peed, it was bright blue. I drank too many magat tears last night.
Enough of diversions. Let's get back to what American wants: release the Epstein files. The ones he promised to release as part of his campaign promises.
Cite
Pedos are so sensitive.
Hey gorgeous, I see you have straightened out Texas.
A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. I kept waiting to get "owned" by the right, so I got bored. The ineptitude is staggering. The 2020 was rigged. But all the king's men and all the king's horses couldn't find a lick of proof (despite a myriad of claims they had proof positive everywhere). Both houses, loaded with sycophants, and not one could come up with proof. Holy shit. That's a special kind of stupid, ya know?
Jesus. They couldn't even buy themselves an election. Elon lost a lot of money ... should we start a GoFundMe?
no worries, they can't even hit a stationary target now ...
Hey, Girlfriend! I have missed you! So Texas is looking pretty good I hear
I've missed you! You were my first NV girl crush! So damn funny and smart ... I still use the "hallway sex" funny.
It'll be good to get back to when people were civil to one another; when a president doesn't resort to childish name calling and petty retribution because someone hurt his 'feels.' I want a president that has rallies the kids can watch and feel pride. Not rude, nasty, and disgustingly ridiculous tropes and theories. I'd never want my kids to attend his rallies. I watched Obama's rally the other night and was moved to tears. I missed the classy elegance of a well-educated speaker who inspires patriotism and good will. Someone deserving of the office. I'm embarrassed by Trump's ineptitude and offensive speech and mannerisms. I actually feel sorry for his cult. Trump's called them stupid more times than they realize. They actually applaud when he insults them.
Cyberhugs to you, my sister-friend.
One of the dopes on Fox News last night lamented the loss saying "he (Trump) brought sanity back" to politics.
Do you think they believe no one is groaning, laughing and rolling their eyes at such a ridiculous statement? There's that special kind of stupid thing again.
I want that back too. Guess what? I'm a gramma! 8 month baby girl!
They can't help it. They have one working brain cell between them and it's on life support
SHUT THE HECK UP!! I'm sooooo happy!!! I'm going to have to change my retorts to you from "you kiss your mother with that mouth?!" to "you kiss your precious grandbaby with that mouth?!" Congratulations!! I'm thrilled for you and the entire family, Trout. I'm verklempt from happiness for you.
Thank-you! We all just love her to pieces
I watched about ten minutes of the increasingly irrational explanations the Fox heads were spouting until
one of them said "you know, Talarico took a page from Trump, no new wars, just infrastructure and lower inflation"
so she credited Trump like it was a positive thing for Trump.
Doesn't she realize she is illustrating the depth and breadth of his duplicity, deceit, hypocrisy, and double-dealing? You'd think she'd shut up about pointing out that he ran on that platform and did the exact opposite. What a rube.
By the way, has Mexico paid for the wall yet?
<cough> let me get this pepsi cleaned off my desk...
Good to see you!
they refused to, because of shoddy work by american no-bid contractors, and then taxpayers got stuck with a huge bill ...
Back atcha, my dear friend!
Congress passed legislation saying America was getting that even under Republicans. While Democrats have more power to subpoena if the Trump administration continues to obstruct and his DOJ refuses to bring charges against those in contempt it's going to have to eventually go through multiple court rooms and lots of delays before it ever sees the light of day sadly.
While I believe we have a much better chance at seeing that stuff now, there are likely some Democrats or their donor's names in there as well so I wouldn't expect too much transparency as they desperately try to hide their and their excessively wealthy donor's involvement with a pedophile. What's most encouraging is all the incumbents who lost or were replaced in this midterm on both sides meaning there will likely be fewer pedophile protectors left in Washington.
I realize full transparency is never going to occur, but damn. What's the secrecy about? The more they avoid the issue, the more guilty he appears.
If democrats continue to follow "standard operating decisions" especially which even they do not inform the public about ahead of time (for elections/voting) they should be called: "Liars" and let loose again in 2028! Time is up on taking it for granted that politicians lie outright (and not for state security reasons). We have got to start the discussion on what we want from politicians. . . and professional liars and cheaters simply won't do!
no innocent person would have gone to such great lengths to bury any evidence that would vindicate him ....
hey .
Unfortunately, since he doesnt have to worry about losing another election now, that is recedingly unlikely. He could stall the Democrats and the courts for two years standing on his head.
It speaks for itself. When it comes to criminality, those with nothing to hide, hide nothing.
From The Economist