, Zoë Schiffer and Leah Feiger dive into how Elon Musk’s America PAC is spending millions on the most consequential Senate races of the 2026 midterms—and how most of that money goes to opposing Democrats rather than supporting Republicans. They also break down effective altruism, the once-niche philosophy now at the center of the AI safety debate, and why the Trump administration has called it a dangerous ideology. Plus, they discuss the backlash against the graphic designer who created the logo for Meta’s AI assistant, Muse.
Elon Musk’s America PAC Is Spending Big on the Midterms. We’re Tracking It Daily
Elon Musk’s America PAC Is Quietly Funding November’s Most Consequential Elections
She Designed Meta’s New AI Logo. Then Came the Hate
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: Hey everyone, this is Leah. We wanted to share with you that
is a finalist for not one or two, but three Signal Awards. The judges pick who wins, but listeners also have a say with the listener’s choice vote. You can go to the links we included in the show notes and vote for us. We promise it takes just a minute and your vote goes a long way. OK, onto the show.
: And I’m Leah Feiger, director of politics and science. This week we’re doing a deep dive into how
has spent millions of dollars to influence some of the most consequential races this midterm season. WIRED has
to follow America PAC’s support in real time. We’re going to take you through why these races matter and how Musk is throwing Republicans all of this cash.
: We’re also going to break down the once obscure philosophy that now seems to be everywhere from X threads to The Economist cover,
. We’ll talk about what this ideology is actually all about, why many AI researchers subscribe to it, and how it has been actively shaping the debate around AI safety.
has been receiving a ton of backlash. Zoë spoke with her all about it this week and she had a lot to say. Zoë, it’s just me and you this week. We’ve officially pushed Brian off a cliff.
: Yeah, we have. The FaceTime chat has gone live. We will not be talking about any tech conferences this week.
: Absolutely not. But he’ll be back next week. So at the very least, there’s that. OK, Zoë, Elon Musk. He’s back.
. To refresh everyone’s memories a little bit, Musk is the founder and main donor of America PAC, a super PAC that was started in 2024 to help elect President Donald Trump to the White House. They succeeded. Trump is in office. The PAC spent more than $260 million to make that happen. This time around for November’s midterms, the PAC has been going about it a little bit differently. WIRED created a
to monitor their donations in real time. You can check it out on the WIRED website. And we learned a lot putting this together. Basically, the PAC is donating to the election’s most consequential races. They are not focusing obviously on the presidential race. There is no presidential race this year. But they are all in on the most critical Senate races in the country that are really going to decide the makeup of Congress next year. The PAC is primarily pumping money against Democrats as opposed to for Republicans, which is really interesting. For every dollar that America PAC has spent supporting a Republican candidate, more than two have gone to oppose a Democrat. And that only becomes more extreme in some of these Senate races, right? In Texas where several Musk companies are based, the group has spent tons and tons of money attacking Democrat James Talarico. We’re talking like $9 million. Whereas promoting Ken Paxton, around the one million mark. Similar numbers can be found in the Ohio Senate race, in Iowa, really up and down the board. And these races are not random. They represent the path for Democrats to take control of the chamber this November and could open Republicans, Musk included, up to a lot of investigations and regulatory pressure. So this is critical for so many reasons. I’m so excited to talk with you about it. What did you think of the tracker? Did you get a chance to play around with it?
: I did get a chance to play around with it. I was really impressed, not least because you coding something for the internet, an app and web, honestly, groundbreaking.
: I can take zero, zero coding credit. This all goes to our amazing investigations team who really knocked it out of the park. They did.
: Well, jokes aside. No, I think it’s really important. I mean, like you said, the total spending on America PAC’s part is less than what they spent previously, but it’s much more targeted. They’re being really specific. And that’s because the sta