Musk Gives $158 Million to GOP Fund That Sent It to Texas PAC

Elon Musk gave $158 million to the Senate Leadership Fund in September, and the Republican super PAC sent matching amounts to a Texas group supporting Ken Paxton’s U.S. Senate campaign the following days, according to federal filings. The transfers put a large sum behind Paxton as he faces Democratic candidate James Talarico, though the filings do not establish that Musk’s contributions were the specific funds used for the Texas payments. The Federal Election Commission records show Musk contributed $75 million to the Senate Leadership Fund on September 9 and another $83 million on September 23. The fund transferred $75 million to Texas PAC on September 10 and $83 million on September 24. The matching amounts and timing document the sequence of contributions and transfers, but money held by a political committee is fungible. The Senate Leadership Fund has said it was seeking new donations to finance a pro-Paxton operation. The available records do not identify the source of the dollars used for the Texas PAC transfers, so they do not prove that Musk’s money directly financed the payments. Musk also gave $10 million to Lone Star Liberty PAC, a separate committee supporting...