The world’s richest man is launching his support behind Republican New York Rep. Mike Lawler.
Elon Musk’s self-financed America Super PAC dumped $600,000 to back Lawler in recent days as the two-term Hudson Valley congressman faces a tough challenge from Democrat Cait Conley in next month’s midterms, Federal Elections Commission filings show.
It’s a strong indication that Musk, the owner of SpaceX, Tesla and X Corp., will spend more than a million dollars in the campaign’s final days to bolster Lawler and slam Conley.
The Musk spending so far covers contracts to StoryTellers LLC for printing, postage and other messaging supporting Lawler and opposing Conley, the FEC filings, first reported by Gothamist, said.
Musk is the biggest single donor of the 2026 midterm elections, spending nearly $400 million this cycle, including more than $276 million since July, to help Republicans.
“It’s no surprise that Elon Musk has spent millions to keep his puppet Mike Lawler in office,” said Conley campaign spokesperson Maddy Rosen.
“Musk is the operator of the largest data center in the world, and Lawler cast the deciding vote to give data center operators $80 billion in tax breaks, while voting to ban states from regulating data centers and AI operations. As always, when it comes to Mike Lawler’s disastrous record, just follow the money.”
Lawler campaign spokesperson Ciro Riccardi responded, “By law, Lawler for Congress can’t coordinate with super PACs, and we have no say over what America PAC or any other outside group spends in this race.”
“Meanwhile, Cait Conley calls super PAC money ‘dark money,’ yet 27 outside groups, including a teachers’ union super PAC, VoteVets, and the League of Conservation Voters, have spent nearly $6.5 million to elect her. She even formed her own joint committee with House Majority PAC, a Washington super PAC, which has put millions into TV ads for her,” Riccardi said. “That’s hypocrisy.”
Another billionaire mogul, former three-term New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, is opening his wallet and spending $80 million to help Democrats re-take the House and Senate and win other races in the Nov. 3 elections.
Super PACs affiliated with President Trump, including MAGA Inc., could end up spending upwards of $400 million to help Republicans.
One Trump-aligned group, No Going Back PAC, has spent millions of dollars to help GOP challenger Mike LiPetri defeat Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi in Long Island’s 3rd House District, as well as defend Lawler’s seat in the 17th House District.
Lawler, a former state assemblyman, is seeking a third-term to rep the district, which covers Westchester County from the White Plains border as far north as Hopewell Junction as well as Rockland, Putnam and Dutchess Counties.
Conley, an Army veteran and former Biden administration national security adviser, is making her first run for office.
The district was tightly contested in the 2024 election, too, with Lawler winning by a close 52% to 45% — and a razor-thin 50.3% to 49.7% against then-Democratic National Congressional Committee Chairman Sean Patrick Maloney in 2022.
Independent and internal party polls show the Lawler-Conley race is close and could be a nail-biter. Most political watchdogs have rated the race a toss-up.
Super PACS are independent expenditure groups that can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money to influence campaigns, unlike candidates’ campaign committees that face limits on how much can be raised from individual donors under federal law.
