Elon Musk Deletes Posts Urging Republican Votes After Democrats Win US Midterms

Elon Musk appears to have deleted posts urging Americans to vote Republican after Democrats won both chambers of Congress. Musk had reportedly spent at least $458 million backing conservative candidates.

What was deleted

Forbes reported that the removed posts include his Election Day message, "Vote red today!", and a pinned October 29 post urging votes for Republican senators. It said the pinned post came down early Wednesday, around the time Democrat James Talarico claimed victory in the Texas Senate race. The Associated Press called that race for Talarico shortly after 11 p.m. EST on Tuesday, defeating Ken Paxton, whom Musk had heavily backed.

Asked by an X user whether Musk was deleting such posts, Grok, the chatbot from Musk's company xAI, answered 'True'.

Musk's spending

Musk was the largest individual donor in modern US political history this cycle, giving at least $458 million to Republican-aligned causes, according to Federal Election Commission filings. About $216 million went to his super PAC, America PAC.

Musk had backed 106 House and Senate candidates. As of Wednesday midday, 19 had won, all in seats Republicans were expected to win anyway. Another 47 had lost, and 40 races remained uncalled.

Musk's other reactions

Musk did not go silent after the results. Forbes noted that around 1 a.m. EST he joked sarcastically that his "election-interfering space lasers" had not worked this time. He also wrote "Voter ID failed in California" in response to a post, referring to a defeated California ballot measure on photo identification for voting. Forbes said his posts on Tuesday were mostly Grok promotions, apart from the "Vote red today!" message.