Oh, great—Elon Musk is trying to buy elections again

Right-wing billionaire Elon Musk continues to exert his influence over the Republican Party, this time with a $10 million donation to a political action committee backing Senate candidate Nate Morris in Kentucky.

Axios reported Monday that Musk made the donation after meeting with Vice President JD Vance and other senior White House officials in November. The contribution is Musk’s largest ever to a Senate candidate. 

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So far, nine other Republican candidates have declared their candidacy for the seat, which is being vacated by retiring Sen. Mitch McConnell.

The donation comes at an awkward time for Musk and Morris. Musk’s AI chatbot, Grok, has recently been blocked in several countries after it generated unauthorized sexual images of people—including children. The bot is also under investigation in California.

Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont slammed the donation, highlighting the transaction as a symptom of the corrupting influence of money over politics.

“Are we really living in a democracy when the richest man on earth can spend as much as he wants to elect his candidates?” Sanders wrote on X. “The most important thing our nation can do is end Citizens United and move to public funding of elections. Billionaires can’t be allowed to buy elections.”

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Morris is a friend of Vance’s from when they worked together in the venture capital industry. A self-labeled MAGA extremist, Morris once said that he supports a ban on legal immigration until undocumented people residing in the United States are removed.

While Musk’s contribution to President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign certainly helped him win, Musk’s donations haven’t always translated into success. In 2025, he poured millions into the conservative candidate in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, but liberal Susan Crawford won.

Musk has announced plans to support other Republican candidates this year—a reversal from his very public fight with Trump in 2025. Musk’s support for the GOP also undermines his own political party, the “America Party,” that he rolled out last year.

But like so many other of Musk’s promises, that has gone absolutely nowhere.

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