President Donald Trump’s Republicans lost the 2026 midterm elections in a remarkable sweep for the Democrats — one made all the more fascinating, MS NOW anchor Nicolle Wallace pointed out on Thursday, because Republicans spent absolutely as much money as they legally and practically could.
“All of Elon Musk’s money didn’t move Talarico’s favorables down a point,” Wallace told The Bulwark’s Tim Miller. “Didn’t move Paxton’s up, right? Like, Elon Musk spent all of the money that he could pour into the cycle [roughly $200 million]. There was no limit. The number he spent wasn’t because that was all he was willing to spend, that was because that was all that there was to buy in terms of airtime and mailers and consultants that could burn through it.”
Miller mused in various ways on why he found Wallace’s observation to be meaningful.
“He’s a trillionaire,” Miller said of Musk, who is CEO of companies like Tesla and SpaceX. “He’s the richest guy in the world. He’s got this little fiefdom out by the airport now. They’re pushing data centers in the state. And then he has $200 million plus on TV trying to buy his own senator.”
The Bulwark pundit also said that he found a line Talarico used in his acceptance speech on Tuesday night to be particularly poignant and relevant.
“Texas is not for sale,” Miller said. “You cannot come here, take our land, take our rights, and buy your own personal senator.”
Miller added, “The crowd reaction to that was really powerful.”
Despite burning at least one-fifth of a billion dollars to defeat Talarico, and reportedly a quarter-billion elsewhere, Musk does not seem to have voted himself.
“State and local records show that Musk did not vote for her—or anyone,” The Daily Beast’s Noah Kirsch reported on November, adding at the same time that Musk ”did vote during Flores’ race in June, records show, and also previously cast an absentee ballot in the 2020 elections.”
Kirsch linterviewed Cameron County’s election administrator that “based on our records, we do not have any indication that Mr. Musk participated in the November 2022 Election in Cameron County.” The individual continued that ”Musk could not have voted in another county, since that would have triggered the cancellation of his initial registration.”
Kirsch added that “an official in the Texas Secretary of State’s Office confirmed that Musk is only registered to vote in Cameron County, noting that any changes would show up in state databases. The office’s records also showed that Musk did not vote in the midterms.”
In October, former President Bill Clinton’s Labor Secretary Robert Reich described Musk — who said Reich should go to prison for criticizing him — “as a bully-in-chief in the Oval Office and the world’s wealthiest bully dictating American foreign policy — both of whom are now pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into our elections in order to avoid accountability.”