Musk's midterm millions fail as Democrats win both houses of Congress

A costly bet on Republicans

Elon Musk put close to half a billion dollars behind Republican candidates and committees in the 3 November midterms, and most of it went to Ken Paxton in the Texas Senate race. Reported totals differ by source: El País puts it at about 500 million dollars, NPR, citing OpenSecrets, counts more than 445 million, and a New York Times estimate cited by Ars Technica is 474 million. Paxton, a former state prosecutor whose campaign had struggled, lost to Democrat James Talarico, who won 55% of the vote. Musk's America PAC alone spent 47 million dollars trying to defeat Talarico, who turned Musk's role into a campaign theme under the slogan "Texas is not for sale." Other tech donors also lost heavily, including Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz with more than 90 million dollars.

Musk mocked the result on Wednesday, 4 November, writing:

“It seems my space lasers for election interference didn't work this time.”

Texas and the backlash against tech

The result hit hardest in Texas, where Musk's companies are based. He moved personally to the Austin area in 2020 after clashing publicly with California officials during the pandemic, and SpaceX moved its headquarters to Starbase near Brownsville in August 2024. Democrats also took both chambers of Congress, and Gina Hinojosa beat Republican Greg Abbott to become governor, the first Democrat to hold the office in more than three decades. An NBC exit poll found that a majority of voters called AI data centres a crucial or major factor in their vote, while rising inflation and the Iran war fed a broader anger. Sacha Haworth, who heads the non-profit Tech Oversight Project, said:

“Tech executives spent hundreds of millions of dollars but their efforts proved to be nothing more than a paper tiger.”

Democrats prepare to scrutinize Musk

Musk was not on the ballot, yet his companies face likely investigations now that Democrats hold a majority in Congress. Contracts awarded to his companies totaled at least 6.3 billion dollars during the four months he ran DOGE, and the Democracy Defenders Fund, a legal advocacy nonprofit, says they have won at least another 10 billion since.

During four months leading DOGE6.3

Since then (additional)10

During four months leading DOGE

6.3 USD billion

Since then (additional)

10 USD billion

Data from the article text

The core question for lawmakers is whether Musk leveraged his access to the administration for his firms, and whether federal money, government data or public bodies were exposed as a result. Rep. James Walkinshaw of Virginia wrote on X that Musk should answer under oath for what he called lies about DOGE savings. Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware said he would subpoena Musk and added Musk's links to Russian President Vladimir Putin to his list of questions. Rep. Mike Levin of California pointed to Musk's limits on Ukraine's Starlink use, which came days after the Trump administration eased sanctions on Russia and purchases of Russian diesel began in October.

Shares and data centres

After the vote, SpaceX shares dropped 5.5% and Tesla shares fell 5.1%, both trailing the broader market. The sharper risk may lie in permitting, since SpaceX had pitched a market potential of 28,500 billion dollars to investors before its IPO and approvals for its data centres could slow. Democrats could tighten control over such projects and push for moratoria as local opposition grows over electricity costs. In the days before the vote Musk urged his X followers to back Republicans, and in October 2026 he threatened to respond on X after a report said Democrats were weighing investigations into his companies if they won. Democratic lawmakers say they want answers, and Musk now faces those questions from a majority in Congress.