Elon Musk spent more on the midterms than any single donor in US history, and the party he backed lost both chambers of Congress. Now he has reacted, and he’s joking about it.
Elon Musk has responded to the midterm election results after spending hundreds of millions of dollars backing Republicans who went on to lose control of Congress. The Tesla and SpaceX boss poured more than $450 million into Republican campaigns this election cycle, reportedly the largest amount any single donor has ever spent on a US election.
A big share of the money went to Texas, where Musk moved in 2020 and where Tesla, SpaceX and X now have their headquarters.
Musk was one of Donald Trump’s biggest backers in 2024 and went on to lead the Department of Government Efficiency in 2025. But despite all of this, Democrats won control of both the House and the Senate, the Associated Press projected. Tesla and SpaceX shares reportedly fell around 6 percent in premarket trading early Wednesday.
Texas turns blue as Musk jokes about defeat
Some of the biggest upsets came in Musk’s adopted home state.
Democrat James Talarico defeated Ken Paxton in the race for the US Senate, ending a decades-long losing streak for Texas Democrats in statewide races. In the governor’s race, Democrat Gina Hinojosa beat incumbent Greg Abbott.
Musk reacted to the results on X with humor.
“Guess my election-interfering space lasers didn’t work this time,” he wrote, adding a shrug emoji. The joke was a nod to a debunked conspiracy theory that spread after the 2024 election, which claimed Musk had used his Starlink satellites to change vote counts.
In another post, he wrote: “Data centers in space looking pretty appealing right now.”
That one was a reference to SpaceX’s plans to put AI computer clusters into orbit. It also comes after Hinojosa’s win, since she has called for a pause on building new AI data centers in Texas. According to Gizmodo, Musk also deleted an earlier post in which he had urged his followers to “vote red today.”
It wasn’t all bad news for the trillionaire, however. Forbes reported that 18 candidates backed by Musk won their seats, albeit mostly in lower-profile races.
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