Around Labor Day, I spoke to a longtime Democratic campaign operative about the state of the midterm elections, noting that the conditions looked great for the party. “Sure,” the Democrat replied, “but the billionaires’ money hasn’t started flowing yet.”

The concerns were understandable. As the election cycle intensified, there were all kinds of obvious fights — Democrats vs. Republicans, left vs. right, incumbents vs. challengers, MAGA vs. resistance, establishment vs. reformers, etc. — but just as notable was another political clash that pit voters against billionaire megadonors who spent heavily in support of GOP officials and candidates, desperately trying to use their wallets to rescue the Republican Party.

In September, there was great uncertainty about whether this would work. The day after Election Day, we now know it did not.

One familiar name on the list of losers stands out. The New York Times reported earlier this week:

Elon Musk has given more money during the midterm elections than any donor has ever spent in a single election cycle, apart from wealthy candidates who have funded their own runs for office.

He has contributed a stunning amount: $474 million, or nearly half a billion dollars.

Roughly a third of the billionaire’s investments ($168 million) went to the Senate Leadership Fund, the super PAC aligned with the Senate Republicans’ leadership; nearly all of that money was directed at Texas’ U.S. Senate race, which state Attorney General Ken Paxton lost by double digits to Democratic Sen.-elect James Talarico. (In the final weeks of the race, Talarico focused nearly as much on Musk as on his actual opponent, urging Texans not to let Musk “buy” the state.)

The world’s wealthiest person, however, wasn’t alone. Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein spent $150 million in support of Republicans this year; Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, the founders of the Silicon Valley firm Andreessen Horowitz, invested $116 million in support of Republicans; and Jeff Yass spent $110.4 million in support of Republicans and conservative causes.

Some may very well argue that the midterms would have been even more catastrophic for Republicans were it not for the money that billionaire GOP megadonors threw at the elections. There’s probably some truth to that.

But this doesn’t change the fact that these breathtakingly wealthy contributors were powerless to stop the Democratic tsunami, which has left Republican megadonors with little to show for their efforts except disappointment and regret.

In the fight between voters and billionaires’ campaign contributions, voters won in a landslide.

The post In the fight between voters and money, Musk and his billionaire cohorts failed miserably appeared first on MS NOW.

Author: Source Author

From MS Now.