Elon Musk spent at least $445 million trying to keep Republicans in charge of Congress, the Associated Press reported on Nov. 5. The Congress he tried to keep oversees the billions of dollars' worth of business his companies do with the federal government. He lost. The Hill reported on Nov. 6 that his wealth was no match for the blue wave.

Where the money went

Ken Paxton effectively benefited from $158 million of Musk's spending, AP reported, and lost his Senate race to Democrat James Talarico. Talarico had said of Musk: “He wants his very own personal United States senator.” Musk spent at least $5 million to try to reelect Gov. Greg Abbott, who lost to Democrat Gina Hinojosa.

On election night Musk posted on X: “Guess my election-interfering space lasers didn't work this time.” He did not respond to AP's messages seeking comment.

What the money was guarding

In August, Musk's companies received a $30 million Texas state grant for a semiconductor plant estimated to create 3,000 jobs, according to AP. Hinojosa, campaigning, said Musk “got a $1.7 billion property tax break here in Texas.” That figure is her campaign claim as quoted by AP; BTP has not seen the underlying tax record. If her number holds, the break is about 3.8 times Musk's entire midterm spend ($1.7 billion divided by $445 million).

Earlier BTP coverage cited a New York Times count of $474 million in Musk political spending. AP's figure is at least $445 million. The two outlets may be counting different spending or different dates; this story uses AP's number.

The day after

Musk's net worth fell about $45 billion on Wednesday, Nov. 4, to $865.6 billion, AP reported, citing Forbes. That one-day drop is about 101 times his midterm spend. SpaceX lost about $40 billion in market value, to $1.83 trillion, and Tesla lost about $40 billion, to $1.54 trillion. Joe Mazzola of Charles Schwab told AP that worries about congressional investigations contributed to the early plunge.

The subpoenas

AP reported that Democrats in Congress were already queuing up possible subpoenas and investigations of Musk. Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-Va.) said: “He must answer for it under oath.” In a separate Nov. 5 report, AP said the incoming Democratic majority plans to examine DOGE's actions, the cost-cutting operation Musk led.

Musk now says SpaceX will get under 10% of its revenue from the U.S. government, Bloomberg reported in a headline BTP has not read in full or dated. Under 10% of a very large company can still be billions of dollars. When the new chairs ask for SpaceX's federal contract records, the open question is whether the numbers match Musk's.