Elon Musk Spent $366M On The Midterms — Will It Work?

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

Support for the show comes from VCX, the public ticker for private tech. The US stock market started history's greatest way of a wealth creation, from factory workers in Detroit to farmers in Omaha.

Anyone can own a piece of the great American companies. But today, our most innovative companies are staying private longer, which means everyday Americans are missing out, until now. Introducing VCX, the public ticker for private tech, now available wherever you buy stocks. Visit getvcx.com for more info. That's getvcx.com. Carefully consider the investment material before investing, including objectives, risks, charges and expenses. This and other information can be found in the Fund's Prospectus at getvcx.com. This is a paid sponsorship.

SPEAKER_2 (0:46)

From the Goldman Sachs trading floor in 10 minutes or less, investors and analysts share timely analysis on the week's market activity.

The Markets Podcast from Goldman Sachs. Listen now.

SPEAKER_3 (1:01)

What if managing company spend took less managing?

Introducing Amex Corporate, one intelligent platform connecting cards, expenses and payments so you can keep work moving. Built to simplify, designed to scale. This is Amex Corporate. Get started at go.amex slash Amex Corporate. Terms apply.

Ed Elson (1:43)

Welcome to Prof G Markets. I'm Ed Elson. It is October 14th. Let's check in on yesterday's market vitals.

The S&P 500 was flat after New York's Fed president eased fears of an aggressive rate-hiking cycle. Meanwhile, the Dow and the NASDAQ declined. The yield on 10-year treasury slipped from last week's highs. Brent crude held above $106 per barrel. And finally, earning season kicked off with the banks. JPMorgan Chase stock fell after posting a rare profit miss due to reduced deal-making and bond trading. Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs stock rose as a strong quarter of equities trading led them to an earnings beat. And by the way, we have been nominated for three Signal Awards. So if you like our show, please head to vote.signalaward.com. Cast your ballots for us in each of these three categories. Best video podcast, best daily podcast, and best money and finance podcast. We'll also leave a link in the description to make it easier for you. Thank you so much.

Okay, what else is happening? The world's richest man is quietly reshaping America's political map again. Elon Musk has now spent $276 million on his SuperPAC and other Republican groups over the past three months alone. That brings his total spending for the 2025-2026 election cycle to roughly $366 million, which is well beyond the $290 million that he spent in 2024 to help return Trump and the Republicans to power. But Musk isn't alone. According to the New York Times, 20 big donors have spent a combined $1.2 billion on this year's elections. All but two backed Republicans. Meanwhile, AI and crypto groups spent $127 million across 100 primaries this year, and they have won roughly 90 percent of them. So joining us to discuss the money that is shaping the midterms, we're speaking with Bradley Tusk, venture capitalist, political strategist, and writer Bradley. Welcome back to the show. I would like to start with that $366 million number.

Your reactions?

Bradley Tusk (3:48)

It's obviously a big number. You can't say that it's not.

I'm not going to sit here and say that it won't have an impact because it will. With that said, let me give a somewhat hot take on all of this, which is, I think that the role, the perception of the import of money in campaigns is overrated.

I think that most money in a political campaign goes to broadcast television commercials. The reason why broadcast TV is so expensive is by definition, there's a limited amount of spectrum, so there's a limited amount of time in the day, so therefore, there's a market value for a 30-second ad, a 60-second ad, whatever it might be, and that can be really high. So in a place like New York City, it could easily be a million dollars for a couple of days worth of 60-second ads.

However, not that many people watch broadcast TV anymore. I see it when I watch sports, some people who watch news, but by and large, people are watching their TV on streaming, and there are some ads on streaming, but most of the time, people don't see it or they're able to filter it out. Tremendous amounts of money get spent on direct mail. So that's like when you open your mailbox and there's annoying kind of big oversized postcards that are saying that someone's a pedophile or whatever it might be, those go in the garbage. And I think they go in the garbage without people even glancing at them most of the time. And if you look at a lot of the more recent political phenomenons, whether it's Donald Trump on the right or Zeron Mondani on the left, they didn't win because they had the most money. They won because they had the most energy and because they fit the zeitgeist of the moment. So Mondani won because affordability was an issue that for the people who do vote in a primary in New York City elections, that mattered the most. And he was a charismatic candidate who played incredibly well on social media. And through social media and grassroots, he was able to win. And in the general election, he ran against Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo spent 70 million, Mondani spent 17 Mondani destroyed him. And the reason why is Cuomo's ads were just the most conventional, you know, 6 p.m. on NBC News. And I don't think they were reaching anybody. And Trump was outspent by both Harris and Hillary Clinton. And he beat both of them. And so I think that while money is certainly a problem in politics, it's less of one than people think.