FEC Filings Trace Musk's $158 Million: Passed Next Day, Dollar for Dollar, From Senate Leadership Fund to Texas PAC Backing Paxton
Washington — Third-quarter filings made public by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on October 15 trace the path of Elon Musk's largest political donation of the fall: the $158 million he gave in September to the Senate Leadership Fund (SLF), the main Republican super PAC for Senate races, was transferred by the fund the next day, in identical amounts, to Texas PAC, a group formed specifically for the U.S. Senate race in Texas.
The filings list the transactions one by one. Musk donated $75 million to SLF on September 9 and another $83 million on September 23, together accounting for more than half of the fund's third-quarter receipts. SLF in turn sent $75 million to Texas PAC on September 10 and $83 million on September 24, matching Musk's donations in both timing and amount. SLF raised about $273 million in the third quarter, a record for the organization.
Texas PAC backs Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who defeated incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in the Republican primary and will face Democratic state Rep. James Talarico on November 3 for the Senate seat Cornyn currently holds. According to the Associated Press and CNN, Texas PAC has reported more than $100 million in spending supporting Paxton and opposing Talarico. Ad-tracking data also show the group spent more than $77 million on advertising in September alone, with total pro-Paxton ad spending, including bookings through Election Day, approaching $160 million.
Musk lives in Texas, where his companies SpaceX, Tesla and the social platform X have extensive operations; he moved the headquarters of X and SpaceX to Texas in 2024. The filings also show that from July to September Musk gave more than $80 million to America PAC, the super PAC he founded, which reported spending on the Texas Senate race as well. GSM reported on October 14 that Musk had put in more than $276 million since July and about $366 million in this election cycle, making him the midterms' biggest known individual donor; the full FEC filings released this week show for the first time that $158 million of that money moved through SLF into the Texas contest.
Sources: CNN (Oct. 16), the Associated Press, and Federal Election Commission third-quarter filings.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 马斯克（前）在白宫椭圆形办公室，特朗普总统在一旁就座（2025年5月30日）· 白宫官方照片，Molly Riley 摄，美国联邦政府作品，公共领域（维基共享资源） / Elon Musk (foreground) in the Oval Office with President Donald Trump seated beside him, May 30, 2025 · Official White House photo by Molly Riley, U.S. federal government work, public domain (Wikimedia Commons)
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