Elon Musk hoped Trump would ‘sail into the sunset.’ Now he works frenetically to elect him
- by Los Angeles Times
- Oct 15, 2024
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Column: Elon Musk’s courtship with MAGA has driven X into misinformation abyss
Elon Musk has turned the former Twitter from a social media staple into a fount of misinformation. Even former President Trump seems annoyed with the right’s new cheerleader.
Oct. 11, 2024
Unlike many super PACs, which spend their war chests on television advertising, Musk’s group is focusing almost exclusively on so-called ground game operations, including door-to-door canvassing and voter outreach.
Having support in the House could be crucial for Musk, Noble said. Representatives have the power to order oversight hearings and cut — or threaten to cut — the budgets of agencies that “don’t do what Congress wants.”
Musk’s group is spending to support candidates in 18 congressional districts. Nationwide, Republicans are defending House seats in 15 battleground districts, and Democrats need to pick up four to regain control of the chamber.
If embattled Republicans keep their jobs, “it’s going to be because of this outside money,” said one Democratic consultant who wasn’t authorized to speak about the races publicly. “No one expected Elon Musk to get involved in House races to the degree he has.”
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Musk’s America PAC has spent $1.1 million in the 41st Congressional District in Riverside County to support incumbent Republican Rep. Ken Calvert, who is running against Democrat Will Rollins, a former federal prosecutor.
Musk’s group has become the second-largest outside spender in the tight race, behind only the Congressional Leadership Fund, the super PAC that defends incumbent Republicans, federal data show.
Canvassers are going door-to-door in the district, which includes Corona, Menifee and Palm Springs, with doorknob hang tags that say that Rollins is “too liberal for California families” and that Calvert will “bring back the American Dream.”
Calvert has been in Congress since 1993 and chairs the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, which oversees the Defense Department budget. SpaceX has secured hundreds of millions of dollars in defense contracts, including a $150-million award for rocket launches from Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County.
Because Calvert chairs such a powerful committee, “there is more industry interest in protecting his seat,” said Erin Covey, the House editor for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.
Coby Eiss, Rollins’ campaign manager, said the race is “boiling down to a few billionaires and special interests funding Ken Calvert, versus more than 70,000 grassroots donors funding Will Rollins.”
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Calvert was one of 14 members of Congress from California who sent a letter in August to the California Coastal Commission, urging officials to approve a U.S. Air Force plan to green-light up to 36 SpaceX rockets per year from Vandenberg.
“SpaceX employs over 6,000 people in Southern California and makes invaluable contributions to our national security, so it’s a no-brainer that Ken, like many others in the delegation, would support their mission at Vandenberg,” said Calvin Moore, a Calvert campaign spokesman.
Another signatory on the letter was Rep. Michelle Steel (R-Seal Beach), who is in a competitive race for reelection in Orange County.
America PAC has spent more than $940,000 on canvassing and digital media to back Steel over Democrat Derek Tran, filings show.
Paul Iskajyan, a Tran campaign spokesman, said Steel “can’t stand on her own record, so she’s being propped up by a billionaire weirdo.” A Steel campaign spokesman declined to comment.
The PAC has also spent more than $700,000 to support Republican Rep. David Valadao (R-Hanford) in the Central Valley, who also signed the SpaceX letter. Valadao is running against Democrat Rudy Salas, who in 2022 lost to Valadao by about 3,100 votes.
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Musk’s political metamorphosis goes beyond money. The billionaire now bashes the left’s “woke mind virus” and trumpets debunked theories from the right — including that Democrats encourage illegal immigration to shift America’s voting base in their favor and that the Biden-Harris administration has shortchanged American hurricane victims while heaping money on immigrants in the U.S. without legal authorization.
Musk did not respond to an interview request sent to SpaceX. But he has previously contended that the Democratic Party had shifted “far to the left,” forcing his jump to the GOP.
“The Democrats have become the party of the rich and entitled (just look at their donor list) and the Republicans have become the party of the people,” Musk, who is worth well over $200 billion, said on X this month.
The 53-year-old businessman has made clear that he felt mistreated when Democrats, including Biden, criticized him or failed to acknowledge his achievements.
In 2021, the Biden administration didn’t invite Musk and Tesla to a White House summit for electric car makers, a slight linked to the company’s refusal to embrace unionization. The tech journalist Kara Swisher said she spoke to Musk, who was “very angry,” a message she passed on to the White House.
Rep. Ro Khanna, who represents part of Silicon Valley, recently told CNN he thought the reason Democrats “started to lose Elon was actually personal.”
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Khanna said the party’s leaders should have praised Musk’s groundbreaking achievements in space and his leadership on electric cars, despite his nonunion stance. In 2022, Musk said on X that the Biden administration had done “everything it can to sideline & ignore Tesla.”
“We didn’t celebrate it and he felt offended,” Khanna said.
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