Much of the Republican advertising surge behind Ken Paxton's U.S. Senate campaign this fall was paid for by one donor, Elon Musk, according to campaign finance reports filed Thursday and reported by The Texas Tribune.
Reports filed with the Federal Election Commission by Senate Leadership Fund, the main super PAC of Senate Republicans, show Musk gave the group $75 million on Sept. 9 and another $83 million about two weeks later. Each time, the fund moved the same amount the next day into a newly formed group called Texas PAC, which began airing ads within days, the Tribune reported.
Counting other spending, the Tribune estimated Musk has put nearly $190 million into the Texas Senate race.
Senate Leadership Fund has spent more than $159 million on television, radio and digital ads in Texas through Texas PAC, about twice what Democrat James Talarico's campaign has spent, according to the media tracking firm AdImpact as cited by the Tribune. Outside groups led by the fund had spent more than $217 million on the race by the end of September.
Why the money moved
The fund backed Sen. John Cornyn in the spring primary, which Paxton won, and had estimated that defending the seat with Paxton as the nominee would cost $150 million to $200 million. Its executive director, Alex Latcham, told Bloomberg TV on Wednesday that "generous investors" had let the group back Paxton without pulling money from other states.
Musk's political team first contacted the fund over concerns about Paxton's standing, a person familiar with the talks told the Tribune. That led to a deal in which Musk gave $10 million to Lone Star Liberty PAC, the main outside group supporting Paxton, matched by money from the fund and other donors. The PAC had $35,000 in the bank at the end of June.
America PAC, which Musk funds, had also spent $18.8 million on the Senate race through Tuesday, much of it on messaging against Talarico, and about $800,000 on five competitive U.S. House races in Texas.
