Midterms: Musk, Soros and Co: Who wants to influence the US midterm elections with multimillions

San Francisco, New York. Elon Musk is back in US politics. Quieter than two years ago, but with even more money. Since the beginning of July, the Tesla and SpaceX boss is said to have transferred more than $276 million to Republican organizations and a so-called Super PAC (Super Political Action Committees) financed by him.

This emerges from figures that Musk's representatives presented to the New York Times newspaper and which a spokeswoman for his fundraising vehicle "America PAC" confirmed to the TV station CNBC. This makes Musk by far the largest known donor to the US midterm elections in November - but by no means the only one.

Spending by groups campaigning independently of the candidates is already at record levels. This is shown by a current analysis by the Brennan Center for Justice, an independent institute at New York University. By the end of September they totaled around two billion dollars - 51 percent more, adjusted for inflation, than in the 2022 midterm elections.

Super-rich people in the USA are thus gaining further influence on the country's course until the next presidential election in 2028. Political observers have long criticized the American system of campaign financing. “Such a brazen attempt to buy the outcome of an election should be a major scandal,” writes Michael Waldman, president of the Brennan Center, about Musk’s millions. “As is often the case, the scandal lies not in what is illegal, but in what is legal.”

The Handelsblatt has analyzed the current figures and provides an overview of the most important donors, their political orientation - and the question of what the money does to the political culture of the USA.

1. How campaign finance works

The large sums are made possible by a peculiarity of US law: There are two main types of political money. Donations to candidates are capped: a private individual may give each person a maximum of $3,500 per election, and companies and unions are not allowed to transfer anything directly from their coffers. However, there is no limit to what someone can spend on election advertising - as long as they do not coordinate with the candidate. Since the “Citizens United” ruling in 2010, this has also applied to corporations and unions.

Since then, campaign groups that only finance advertising have been allowed to accept unlimited donations. This is how the so-called Super PAC came into being. If you want to give more than the capped amounts, you have to go through him or similar groups. According to the Brennan Center, a super PAC relies almost entirely on a handful of major donors, who can also form it themselves.

The rules are tighter than they sound. For example, it is not permitted for a candidate to have a say in the content or timing of an advertisement. However, he is allowed to appear at super PAC fundraising evenings. And the electoral authority FEC has so far allowed some joint planning for door-to-door election campaigns. It cannot currently punish violations anyway: it has been lacking the commissioners for a necessary decision-making quorum since May 2025, as only two members are currently in office after several departures. However, at least four members with voting rights are required for official resolutions.

In addition, not all money can be counted. “These totals almost certainly do not represent the whole picture,” writes author Ian Vandewalker, a lawyer at the Brennan Center. Online advertising spending was often not covered by disclosure rules. Paid influencers, for example, would not have to reveal who pays them.

2. How Elon Musk donates

Musk donated $158 million alone to the Senate Leadership Fund, the most important super PAC for Republican Senate candidates. According to the New York Times, the sum exceeds the entire quarterly income of its Democratic counterpart, the Senate Majority PAC.

Another $76 million went to the “America PAC”. According to those close to him, Musk will make a total of at least $366 million this election cycle. That's more than the roughly $290 million he spent on Trump's return to the White House in 2024. In addition, funds come from groups that do not have to name their donors.

The Musk-financed “America PAC” relies on door-to-door campaigning. Most recently, almost 3,000 paid helpers were on duty, helping around 6.5 million doors. The aim is to mobilize conservative casual voters, especially with culture war issues such as transgender rights and the accusation that all Democrats are socialists.

Personally, Musk is holding back. There will be no appearances and million dollar raffles like in 2024. On his Platform The “America PAC” also announced that it would remain active until the 2028 presidential election.

In May 2025, after his break with Trump, Musk announced: “When it comes to political spending, I will do significantly less in the future.” The two have now reconciled.

3. How other super-rich people donate

A current analysis by the broadcaster CNBC shows who, besides Musk, donates a lot. This is based on donations to candidates and political groups reported to the FEC from January 2025 to October 5th. On the Republican side, names from the financial world and business families stand out. Jeff Yass, who co-founded the Wall Street firm Susquehanna, gave $95.3 million with his wife Janine.

Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein, who founded the packaging and industrial supplies retailer Uline in their own basement in 1980, have a net worth of $70 million. Miriam Adelson also belongs to this circle: her family is a shareholder in the Las Vegas Sands casino group, which her late husband Sheldon founded.

Analysts also point to a relatively new phenomenon: of the 20 largest donors and donor groups in the evaluation, seven are closely linked to the crypto, AI or gaming industries. Together they gave around 377 million dollars, Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz and their venture capital firm of the same name alone gave around 91 million. Some of the money from these industries flows to Trump's super PAC “MAGA Inc.”

The organization Public Citizen sees this as a pattern. By August 2024, almost half of the money that companies put into the election campaign came from crypto companies. “We warned in 2024 that other corporate interests would follow the crypto industry’s playbook in future elections,” research director Rick Claypool said in August. “Unfortunately, that’s exactly what we’ll see in 2026.”

According to CNBC, the largest donor on the Democratic side is George Soros with $102 million; LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman donated $11.5 million to Lone Star Rising. This super PAC is campaigning on its own behalf for James Talarico, the Democratic Senate candidate in Texas. In the polls, Talarico is just ahead of his Republican opponent Ken Paxton.

4. Who benefits the most

Texas is also at the center of Musk's cash flows. The billionaire lives there, and his companies Tesla, SpaceX and the Boring Company are also based there. No other Senate race attracts so much money from super PACs and similar groups: According to the transparency organization OpenSecrets, they spent almost $287 million there by the beginning of October, much of it in the primary campaign. In Michigan and Ohio it was more than $170 million each.

The money of the super-rich therefore primarily helps the Republicans. Among the 20 groups that spend the most on campaign advertising, those on the Republican side spend more than twice as much as those on the Democratic side, according to the Brennan Center. In 2014, both camps were almost on par.

Things look different in the candidates' direct campaign coffers. Even the super-rich are only allowed to transfer capped amounts there, so their millions don't reach there. Instead, the Democrats are ahead in the important Senate races: In seven of these races, their candidates had twice as much money as the Republicans at the end of June, as the CNBC analysis of the FEC data shows.

In this election campaign, Democratic donors were primarily inspired by the candidates rather than by large groups and the party apparatus, Caroline Welles, who runs a PAC for Democratic women, told the broadcaster.

5. What this does to political culture

Katie Harbath was once a campaign manager on US President George W. Bush's team and then head of public policy at Facebook for ten years. She sees the good relationship between Silicon Valley and Washington as crucial for the flow of donations: "The tech bosses go where the political power is. At the moment it lies with the Republicans."

What is new is what Elon Musk started in 2024: donating large sums to super PACs. In the past, corporate bosses would have donated directly to candidates, “but that didn’t make any big waves.” Today, their millions flow specifically to organizations that promote specific candidates, said Harbath. The donors realized that they had to be “incredibly close” to Trump because they could then influence so much. “This is the greatest commitment from tech leaders in Washington that I have seen in my 25 years here.”

Is Musk deciding elections with his record donations? “No, that would be too far-fetched,” believes Harbath. It is “downright absurd how much money is being spent in these midterms.” However, it remains to be seen what effect this will have in the end. “At the end of the day, voters still think for themselves and don’t just do what a billionaire tells them.”