Musk PAC slams Democrats for trans ideology, socialism

Tech billionaire Elon Musk’s America PAC put out its first round of midterm campaign ads over the past few days, focusing on concerns over transgender ideology and socialism. Dozens of short online ads slammed Democratic U.S. Senate candidates in Ohio, Alaska, Texas, and Iowa for voting to allow men to enter women’s sports and spaces. One advertisement also claimed that Abdul El-Sayed, a Senate candidate from Michigan, supported sex changes for minors.

The PAC released a few specific ads referring to Senate candidates Chris Pappas of New Hampshire and Troy Jackson of Maine as socialists. Neither is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, though the political group has previously endorsed Jackson. Pappas in the Democratic primary Tuesday defeated Karishma Manzur, a candidate who was openly socialist, a member of DSA. Several America PAC ads also urged people to check their voter registration and said that socialists were counting on Republican voters to stay home on Election Day.

The news comes about a week after Musk disclosed in a Federal Election Commission filing that his PAC spent $800,475 in August. The money mainly went to competitive Senate races in states including Texas, Maine, New Hampshire, and Ohio. The Texas Senate race between Republican Ken Paxton and Democrat James Talarico was the biggest-ticket item, at about $248,000 spent. The PAC also laid out $88,000 for a few House races.

Dig deeper: Read Joanna Innsco’s report on the results of the New Hampshire primary election.