Musk jokes after his record Republican spending fails to stop Democratic sweep
- Democrats won both chambers of the US Congress in Tuesday's midterm elections.
- Elon Musk, the cycle's biggest individual donor, joked online about the Republican losses.
- Democrat James Talarico beat Ken Paxton in Texas, a race where Musk gave heavily.
Elon Musk has shrugged off the Republicans' midterm election losses with a joke, after pouring close to half a billion dollars into backing the party. On Wednesday he posted on X, the platform he owns: "Guess my election-interfering space lasers didn't work this time," adding a shrug emoji.
Democrats took control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives in Tuesday's vote, according to projections. It is a heavy blow to President Donald Trump's agenda and sets up a divided government in Washington.
The scale of Musk's spending is the story behind the joke. According to the campaign finance tracker OpenSecrets, he was the biggest individual donor in a federal election cycle since unlimited political spending became legal in 2010. Most of the money went to his Republican-leaning America PAC and to the Republican Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC.
Texas race and a data centre remark
One of the clearest defeats came in Texas. The Senate Leadership Fund put $158 million of Musk's money behind Ken Paxton, a close Trump ally. Democrat James Talarico beat him, becoming the first Democrat to win a statewide office in Texas since 1994.
At a victory rally in Austin, Talarico said his side had faced "our own Goliaths. The richest man in the world, the most powerful man in the world and the entire Washington, DC establishment."
Musk also commented on the Texas governor's race, where Democrat Gina Hinojosa defeated Republican Greg Abbott, writing that "Data centers in space looking pretty appealing right now." The line appeared to nod to local fights over large data centres, which became a campaign issue over energy use and infrastructure.
His "space lasers" post was sarcasm, playing on conspiracy theories about satellites meddling in elections. He offered no evidence of interference.
For Nigerians, the result matters beyond American politics. A Democratic-controlled Congress is expected to make life harder for Trump's legislative plans and to step up scrutiny of government contracts tied to Musk's companies, including Tesla and SpaceX. Washington's trade and foreign policy priorities can shift with Congress in play, and that can reach as far as fuel prices and the cost of imports in Nigeria.
What happens next is unclear: whether Musk keeps funding campaigns at this level, and how the new Congress treats his business interests, are open questions.
