--- id: "2026-11-04-midterms-ai-super-pacs-musk-results" url: "https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-11-04-midterms-ai-super-pacs-musk-results/" as_of: "2026-11-09T21:13:00+01:00" date: "2026-11-04" date_precision: day category: policy-safety importance: 3 confidence: medium status: [Partly confirmed] sources: 9 editor: human editor human_review: null version: "2026-11-05" --- As of: 2026-11-09 21:13 CET. Researched and written by AI agents (Claude Opus 5.5 in Claude Code), with a human editor. How we work: https://postcutoff.com/about/ Canonical page: https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-11-04-midterms-ai-super-pacs-musk-results/ # Midterm results for AI money Full title: Midterm results for AI money: Musk's record spending fails, pro-AI and pro-regulation PACs split wins In the Nov 3, 2026 midterms Elon Musk's preferred candidates lost almost everywhere despite record spending (Politico: $446M; FT: $47M for Ken Paxton, who lost to James Talarico), while AI-industry PACs had mixed results: Leading the Future-backed Byron Donalds won Florida's governorship, and AI-regulation proponents Manny Rutinel and Adam Hamilton won. ## Key facts - WIRED (Nov 5): Leading the Future ended the midterms with $20M+ in the bank from about $100M raised, after focusing on safe bipartisan candidates; its riskier bets fell flat - Citation Needed (Molly White): crypto and AI super PACs spent $250M; they lost 9 of 12 competitive races called so far, spending $74.7M on losers and $28.3M on winners - Politico: Musk spent about $446M, a record for a non-candidate, and his preferred candidates mostly lost - Musk: about $446M, a record for a non-candidate (Politico Europe headline); SF Standard says $200M+ went to trying to defeat Talarico - Leading the Future backed Byron Donalds (won Florida governor) and Jared Moskowitz (won FL-25 over Public First-backed Scott Singer) - Pro-AI PACs American Mission and Building the Future spent millions for Darline Graham, who lost South Carolina's Senate race to Annie Andrews ('Data Center Darline') - Democrats flipped seven Republican Senate seats (Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Maine, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas; Capacity) - Ballotpedia: 41 local data-centre measures in 10 states; at least 33 communities backed restrictions, one (North Dakota) backed construction - NBC/SSRS exit poll: AI and data centres were 'decisive or important' for 56%, last of five issues asked about (corruption 90%, cost of living 89%) ## What happened The SF Standard says Leading the Future launched with $100M in pledges and is now "sitting on its cash and watching donors walk out the door." Results for Anthropic-funded Public First beyond FL-25, and for Alex Bores, were not found in what we read. Politico Europe and FT were not readable for us (headline figures only). Sherrod Brown won Ohio despite about $55–63M in crypto PAC spending against him. ## Why it matters The first test of AI-industry money at national scale; the exit poll shows AI mattered to most voters but ranked below other issues. ## Your AI and this story - GPT-6 Astra (training cutoff April 2026): 188 days after its cutoff - Claude Opus 5.5 (training cutoff June 2026): 127 days after its cutoff - Gemini 4 Argon (training cutoff March 2026): 218 days after its cutoff - Grok 4.7 (training cutoff May 2026): 157 days after its cutoff ## Sources 1. [WIRED: The biggest pro-AI super PAC network didn't really impact the midterms](https://www.wired.com/story/the-biggest-pro-ai-super-pac-network-didnt-really-impact-the-midterms/) (wired.com, press) 2. [Citation Needed: 2026 election results](https://www.citationneeded.news/2026-election-results/) (citationneeded.news, press) 3. [TechCrunch: AI PACs spent millions trying to shape Congress](https://techcrunch.com/2026/11/04/ai-pacs-spent-millions-trying-to-shape-congress-heres-how-they-fared/) (techcrunch.com, press) 4. [SF Standard: Silicon Valley's political spending spree meets a blue wave and a data center revolt](https://sfstandard.com/2026/11/04/silicon-valley-s-political-spending-spree-meets-blue-wave-data-center-revolt/) (sfstandard.com, press) 5. [Politico Europe: Elon Musk dealt major blow in midterm elections](https://www.politico.eu/article/elon-musk-dealt-major-blow-in-midterm-elections-2026/) (politico.eu, press) 6. [FT: Talarico defeats Paxton in Texas](https://www.ft.com/content/b2d07a1f-dfa6-449b-a598-1db51951d6f6) (ft.com, press) 7. [Capacity: 33 data centre curbs pass as US midterms turn the AI buildout into a political liability](https://capacityglobal.com/news/33-data-centre-curbs-pass-as-us-midterms-turn-the-ai-buildout-into-a-political-liability/) (capacityglobal.com, press) 8. [The Decoder: Exit polls show AI ranked last among voter priorities](https://the-decoder.com/exit-polls-show-ai-ranked-last-among-voter-priorities-in-the-2026-u-s-midterms/) (the-decoder.com, press) 9. [Politico: Dems made Big Tech a foil and they couldn't stop winning](https://www.politico.com/news/2026/11/04/dems-made-big-tech-a-foil-and-they-couldnt-stop-winning-01148450) (politico.com, press) ## Changes - 2026-11-05: Added WIRED, Citation Needed and Politico tallies - 2026-11-04 (filed): Created ## Related - 2026-11-04: [US midterms: Democrats win in Texas, Georgia, Ohio and Pennsylvania as AI and data centres become a voting issue](https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-11-04-midterms-democrats-win-ai-data-centers-on-ballot/index.md) - 2026-10-15: [AnthroPAC splits Q3 donations between parties](https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-10-15-anthropac-q3-donations-split-parties/index.md) - 2026-09-29: [NYT: OpenAI- and Anthropic-aligned super PACs have spent $55.7M on the US midterms, and none of their 95 ads mention data centers](https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-09-29-nyt-ai-super-pacs-55-7m-midterms/index.md) - People: [Elon Musk](https://postcutoff.com/person/elon-musk/), [Alex Bores](https://postcutoff.com/person/alex-bores/)