WASHINGTON — Tech mogul Elon Musk is throwing his weight behind Senate Republican challenger Nate Morris with a $10 million donation in the hotly contested race to replace retiring Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), The Post has learned.
The decamillion-dollar boost was made last week to a Morris-backing super PAC, sources said, and marks the largest contribution from the SpaceX CEO to a candidate for federal office other than President Trump.
Axios first reported the donation to Fight for Kentucky, which recorded just $49,606.75 cash on hand as of its most recent Federal Election Commission filing July 31.
Morris, who founded the waste and recycling firm Rubicon and later sold it for $2 billion, is competing against Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.) and former commonwealth Attorney General Daniel Cameron to fill the vacancy left by McConnell, the longest-serving leader of either party in Senate history.
A source familiar with Musk’s donation said the Tesla founder spoke with Morris recently and “came away impressed with the candidates business background and anti-establishment, anti-Mitch McConnell message.”
Morris, 45, has leaned heavily into “anti-McConnell” messaging, highlighting in an early ad how the Kentucky senator “trashed Trump” — especially after the 45th president called the 2020 election “stolen” — and claiming that Cameron and Barr were “puppets” of the ex-Republican leader.
Barr, 52, raised more cash than Morris in the last six months of 2025, with the lawmaker boasting a more than $6.42 million campaign war chest as of Dec. 31, according to fundraising figures reported by The Post last week.
Morris — whose campaign until now had been largely self-funded — touted $1.5 million cash on hand.
“The more money Nate Morris spends, the more Kentuckians get to see him and the worse he does,” Blake Gober, Barr’s campaign manager, said in a statement. “Nate Morris spending money made this a two man race between Andy Barr and Daniel Cameron.
“Nate Morris spending more money will cement it that way.”
The source added that Morris intends to continue loaning money to his campaign through the May 19 Republican primary.
This past May, Musk told attendees at the Qatar Economic Forum shortly before his government service ended and close relationship with Trump imploded: “In terms of political spending, I’m going to do a lot less in the future.”
That relationship has since been repaired, and Musk hasn’t shied away from advocating for the GOP in the midterms this year.
“America is toast if the radical left wins,” the billionaire wrote on his social media platform X, responding to a tweet that claimed Musk was “reportedly going all-in funding Republicans to help President Trump take back full control in the November midterms.”
“They will open the floodgates to illegal immigration and fraud,” Musk added. “Won’t be America anymore.”
So far this cycle, the former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) leader has contributed $45 million to his own America PAC, which backed Trump’s candidacy and Republicans with more than $200 million in donations in 2024.
Musk has also donated $10 million this cycle to PACs supporting the GOP’s majorities in the House and Senate, respectively, as well as $5 million to Make America Great Again, Inc., one of the top Trump-supporting PACs.
The only poll of the Senate Kentucky race so far was conducted by Democrat-affiliated group Public Policy Polling, and showed Democratic former state legislator Charles Booker out in front of his own primary, but losing to all three Republicans in the general election.
“Nate Morris and his never-Trump allies have already spent $6 million on TV, and he’s stuck in a distant third and statistically tied with a DEMOCRAT in a Kentucky general election poll,” Gober went on.
“It’s because Kentuckians are learning the truth about Nate: he supported Nikki Haley over President Trump, his business was de-listed from the NYSE after one year because it was a disaster, and he was a DEI-promoting CEO.”
Barr has earned endorsements from Trump allies like Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and former White House physician and current Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas).
Morris has the backing of Sens. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) and Jim Banks (R-Ind.) as well as ex-Trump strategist Steve Bannon and the late conservative activist and Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk.
Trump has not made an endorsement in the GOP primary.
Reps for Cameron’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
