Musk's America PAC Reports First $800,000 in 2026 Midterm Spending, With Up to $200 Million Planned

Elon Musk's super PAC is reporting its first spending for the 2026 midterm cycle.

America PAC disclosed roughly $800,000 in independent expenditures late Wednesday, covering spending from August 18 through August 31, according to Federal Election Commission filings reported by Notus, CBS News and Politico. Two more outlays are scheduled for September 10, per Notus.

The money went almost entirely to Senate battlegrounds. Texas got the biggest slice at $247,595, backing Attorney General Ken Paxton's bid against Democrat James Talarico. Maine's Susan Collins got $170,224.29. Ohio's Jon Husted got $105,675. New Hampshire, Iowa, Michigan and Alaska races split the rest, according to CBS News's breakdown of the filing.

House races got smaller checks: about $37,500 combined for Pennsylvania Reps. Scott Perry, Ryan Mackenzie and Rob Bresnahan, $11,000 for New Jersey's Tom Kean Jr., roughly $10,000 apiece for New York's Mike Lawler and Wisconsin's Derrick Van Orden, and about $10,000 spent against Florida Democrat Jared Moskowitz, per Notus. Politico's tally also lists Virginia's Jen Kiggans and Florida Republican Scott Singer among the House beneficiaries.

Every dollar in the disclosure was categorized for "PRINTING," meaning mail advertisements, and the filing was signed off by Chris Young, a former Department of Government Efficiency staffer Musk hired in 2024 to run America PAC, according to CBS News. Separately, America PAC spent more than $207,000 on digital ads in Texas, Michigan, New Hampshire and Maine, tracked by AdImpact and Facebook's ad library. Most were generic get-out-the-vote reminders. One ad invoked New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani directly: "You couldn't vote in his election, and socialism declared victory over America's biggest city. If you don't vote in November, socialism could declare victory over America."

The $800,000 disclosed this week is small change compared to what's reportedly coming. The New York Times has reported Musk authorized America PAC to spend over $100 million to help Republicans in November. Notus cited the same Times reporting at a $120 million figure for a new field program. Wired, citing officials briefed on the matter, put the range at $100 million to $200 million, a figure both the Daily Signal's Daily Wire-published report and Northeastern's aggregation of New York Post reporting also cite.

The exact number hasn't been nailed down publicly, and America PAC's spokesperson declined to comment when Politico asked. What is confirmed: Musk met with Speaker Mike Johnson during a swing through Texas last week. Johnson confirmed the meeting to CBS News but wouldn't detail what was discussed. "He's made public a lot of what he's doing. I'm not going to talk about our conversation on that point, but we're going to win the midterms," Johnson said.

The Paxton-Talarico Senate race explains the urgency behind the Texas spending. Talarico raised $68.6 million through June 30, more than seven times Paxton's roughly $9.2 million, and held $21.5 million cash on hand versus Paxton's $1.8 million, according to FEC filings cited by the New York Post. Despite that gap, an Emerson College poll from August 9-10 had Paxton ahead 47% to 46%, and the race remains a toss-up in nonpartisan polling.

Cook Political Report currently rates six Senate races as Toss Ups: Alaska, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Ohio and Texas, according to Newsweek. Five are held by Republicans; Michigan is an open Democratic seat. That map is why Trump told Republican lawmakers at a Rose Garden dinner Wednesday that he plans to personally campaign in roughly 35 races before November. "It's all about 35 races," Trump said, per Newsweek. "I'm going to go to every one of those 35 places and we're going to see if we can get everyone elected."

Musk's re-engagement is a reversal from where he stood a year ago. In June 2025, he publicly accused Trump of being "in the Epstein files" and threatened to bankroll a third party, according to the Daily Wire. He later deleted the posts and said some of his attacks on Trump "went too far." The two reconciled publicly at Charlie Kirk's memorial service in Arizona.

Musk also told an interviewer last year he planned to spend "a lot less" on politics going forward, saying "I think I've done enough," a quote CBS News resurfaced this week. Sources differ slightly on how much he actually spent in 2024: Politico puts it at roughly $290 million, CBS News at over $239 million, with FEC filings confirming he was the single largest donor of that cycle regardless of the exact figure.

Historical trends cut against the party in the White House. In 39 of the last 41 midterms, the president's party has lost seats, a dynamic Republicans are bracing for even as they line up nine-figure outside spending, according to Daily Signal contributor Victor Davis Hanson. Whether Musk's money changes that math in Texas, Maine or Ohio will become clear through future FEC disclosures and November's results.