Musk and Bloomberg put millions into campaigns as ad spending tops forecast

Elon Musk put at least $366 million into Republican campaigns during the election cycle, while Michael Bloomberg spent $80 million to support Democrats. The sums come as AdImpact forecasts $11.6 billion in election advertising, a total above spending for the 2024 presidential election, and as Republican groups held a reported advantage in reserved ad funds.

Federal Election Commission filings cited by The Sydney Morning Herald show Musk’s contributions included more than $276 million since July 1. Two payments to the Senate Leadership Fund PAC, described as Republicans’ main vehicle for Senate campaigns, were $75 million on September 9 and $83 million on September 23.

Bloomberg separately reported that a Musk PAC committed $277 million to aid Republicans in the midterms; that headline-level figure differs in scope from the newspaper’s account of Musk’s broader campaign contributions.

Bloomberg spent the $80 million during September and October, according to voz.us, which said he aimed to help Democrats regain control of the House of Representatives. Hoodline’s headline also reported an $80 million Bloomberg contribution for the 2026 midterms.

Voz.us described Bloomberg, a former Republican mayor of New York City, as one of the five largest individual donors to Democrats in the current midterm election. The competing financial picture is especially visible in advertising reservations. Voz.us reported that, as of Nov.

3, Republican groups and allies had reserved about $888 million in advertising, compared with $666 million for Democratic groups. Those figures describe reservations, not completed ad purchases. The Sydney Morning Herald reported a separate measure: as of October 16, more than $452 million had already been spent on advertising in the Ohio Senate race.

That Ohio contest features Jon Husted, who took the seat after JD Vance, and Democrat Sherrod Brown. The Sydney Morning Herald described Husted as facing a difficult race. Its account also said Musk used his platform X to criticize Talarico as a “creep” and promote a conspiracy theory that Talarico had spent 10 days in a mental health facility during the campaign.

The account did not provide a response from Talarico. Bloomberg’s political advisor, Howard Wolfson, told the outlet cited by voz.us that Bloomberg considers campaign resources important, and said that was why he increased his contributions in the campaign’s final stretch.

That explanation is Wolfson’s account of Bloomberg’s reasoning; the separate reporting documents the donation and the parties’ advertising finances, without establishing that any contribution changed a race’s outcome. The figures capture distinct stages and categories of campaign spending: contributions by individuals, PAC payments, ad reservations and ads already purchased.

AdImpact’s forecast sets the broader scale, while the Ohio figures and the competing national reservations show how campaign resources are being deployed across races and parties.