Democrats Swear They’ll Fight Elon Musk. But What About the Cash They Took From SpaceX?

There's a pesky fact for congressional Democrats crying foul about Elon Musk's hostile takeover of the U.S. government: Many of them took campaign cash from a Musk company PAC.

The SpaceX political action committee doled out more than half a million dollars to Democrats during the last campaign cycle - including thousands that flowed to Democrats after Musk became a party pariah by campaigning for Donald Trump.

SpaceX revenues have been buoyed by more than $15 billion in government contracts since its 2002 founding. The company made headlines this week when, amid Musk's attempts to purge federal employees and starve numerous agencies to death, SpaceX received another $39 million contract from NASA.

Like many Beltway players, the company gives out cash on a bipartisan basis through an employee-funded PAC.

Over the last two years, its spending began tilting toward Republicans, and the PAC's payouts paled in comparison to the $290 million that Musk himself spent on the election. Nevertheless, the SpaceX donations could open Democrats to charges of hypocrisy.

We took that in good faith."

House and Senate Democrats have been nearly unanimous in condemning Musk's rampage through the federal government, filing bills, and firing off fiery tweets. On the question of how to approach the donations from SpaceX, however, they seem to be less united. Some appeared poised to keep the cash. Others gave a more ambiguous response when asked whether they would return the money, or had any concerns about it now.

It's something we have to think about," said Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., who took in $7,000 from the PAC in the last cycle.

We took that in good faith, before we realized that Elon Musk was going to come into our country, an unelected bureaucrat," said Rosen, whose leadership PAC received $3,000 from the SpaceX PAC at the end of October. God knows what they have downloaded. Your information, your records, your health care, your Social Security. No one imagined that Elon Musk would be taking over Americans' data and enriching himself because of it."

During the run-up to the 2024 election, at least 77 Democratic congressional campaign committees received money from the SpaceX PAC. The group also gave $30,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and $15,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, campaign spending organs controlled by the party's centrist-skewing leadership in Congress. (Neither group responded to requests for comment.) More money went to leadership PACs affiliated with elected officials.

Overall, Democrats received at least $567,000 from the SpaceX PAC, according to data compiled by OpenSecrets. Republicans netted $866,000 in the same period.

My Wife Drives a Tesla"

As with all corporate PACs, the money that SpaceX gives to candidates comes from employees rather than the company itself. Musk himself has given only $30,000 to the PAC over the years and none since 2019, years before he claims he started voting for Republicans.

Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., whose campaign received $4,000 from the SpaceX PAC, drew distinction between Musk and Musk's companies.

My concern is with Elon's behavior," Heinrich said. I don't have issues with his companies. My wife drives a Tesla. That doesn't mean he should be in people's data at Treasury. That is the concern here, the actual behavior and the fact that he is unaccountable to anyone, from what I can see."

While many members of Congress don't have to worry about flak for the SpaceX donations until 2026, a pair of New Jersey gubernatorial candidates could face questions in the June primary, as NJ.com noted last week.

The campaign organizations of Democratic New Jersey Reps. Mikie Sherrill and Josh Gottheimer respectively received $10,000 and $2,500 from SpaceX PAC, according to Federal Election Commission records. (Gottheimer's campaign did not respond to a request for comment.)

A spokesperson for Sherrill's gubernatorial campaign said neither Musk nor his companies had donated to her in the state race, and that she would not accept donations from them in the future.

To be clear, Mikie will stand up to anybody who threatens New Jersey - especially unelected billionaires," said Sean Higgins, the campaign spokesperson. Mikie has been fighting back against Musk, rallying with constituents and unions, holding a telephone town hall, and cosponsoring legislation to restrict Musk's access to Treasury data - and will continue pushing back against his cuts that threaten programs like Social Security and Medicare."

Some Democrats Aren't Worried

The PAC spending highlights a split between Democrats who reject corporate cash and those who accept it. Usamah Andrabi, the communications director for the Justice Democrats, which supports progressive candidates and opposes taking corporate cash, said Musk was pulling off a corporate coup" of the government, aided by the big business campaign spending that drowns out voters' voices.

Either Democrats can continue to enable it alongside Republicans or they can tackle it head on."

Either Democrats can continue to enable it alongside Republicans," he said, or they can tackle it head on, reject all corporate PACs as a party policy, and restore the trust and credibility that they have spent decades losing with working class voters."

From a once marginal position, the no-corporate-PAC pledge is increasingly touted by Democratic candidates as a sign that they reject corruption.

Critics of the pledge say that Democrats never took a large share of their campaign contributions from corporate PACs anyways - and that corporate lobbyists have found a way to skirt the pledge by giving personal checks.

Related Trump's Election Is Also a Win for Tech's Right-Wing Warrior Class"

Of the dozens of Democrats who did receive SpaceX PAC money, many sat on committees with oversight of SpaceX contracts. That kind of spending is distressingly common, according to Louisa Imperiale, the chief advancement officer at the election reform group Issue One.

This is what we would consider corporate capture of Congress, that you can, by design, give money and curry favor with the politicians who regulate your industry - or in most cases, choose not to regulate your industry," she said. We have the big corporate money players making sure their voices get heard and effectively drowning out the voices of constituents."

Imperiale dismissed the idea that receiving money from a corporate PAC was any less concerning than receiving money from a billionaire like Musk.

Any corporate PAC giving money to a sitting congressperson that regulates their industry is just a recipe for corruption," she said. Separating the individual from the corporation, from the corporate PAC, to me is a bit of a distinction without a difference."

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