Elon Musk spent nearly $500 million on the midterms and lost big-time

The midterms are (mostly) behind us. We're still waiting on results from a bunch of races, including senate races in Mississippi and Alaska. Despite that, there are two undisputed facts. This was a hell of a great election for Democrats and a really bad one for "dark MAGA" acolyte Elon Musk. The Tesla CEO spent nearly $500 million to elect Republican candidates, according to FEC filings reported on by Forbes.

Musk was the election's single largest individual donor by a vast margin, dwarfing the second-place billionaire couple Dick and Liz Uihlein by more than a factor of three. He didn't seem to get a lot in return on his investment, which will likely result in some angry and bizarre posts on X throughout the coming days, weeks, months and years.

Guess my election-interfering space lasers didn't work this time 🤷‍♂️

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2026

Much of his money was spent in his adopted home of Texas. All told, Musk funneled around $225 million to the region, according to a report by CNBC. The Lone Star State issued a stunning rebuke of Musk and his chosen candidates. A senate seat and the governorship both flipped blue, with huge margins. The same can be said of numerous house seats and a number of state congressional seats. Musk probably would've been better served spending that money on another car that jumps like a cricket.

Musk also sent lots of cash to a number of Super PACs and specific candidates throughout the country. He put his support behind Republicans in 106 House and Senate races. As of right now, 18 of those people have won and they were primarily in extremely safe red areas. He lost 45 races and another 43 are yet to be called, though many are leaning Dem.

Elon Musk dropped nearly half a billion dollars on the midterms.

98% of the money he spent on specific candidates went to losers. pic.twitter.com/NvaHP4cwJx

— Steve Rattner (@SteveRattner) November 4, 2026

Some big losses for Musk occurred in states like Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Kansas, Iowa and, well, just about everywhere else. These numbers will shift as more elections get called. 

He was frantic leading up to the election, decrying that a Democrat win would signal "the end of democracy in any meaningful sense of the word." He was also adamant that Senate-elect James Talarico in Texas would "trans your kids."

It's amazing the difference two years can make. Just 22 months ago, Musk was the happiest billionaire of all. He was handing out "Roman salutes" with reckless abandon and gutting crucial government agencies with glee. All parties have to end sometime. However, we shouldn't feel too bad for the CEO. Elon Musk is currently worth around $898 billion. He has enough money to put a similar thumb on the scale for the next, uh, 2,000 election cycles.