Elon Musk donates $5 million to Abbott in final stretch of midterms amid battle over data centers in Texas
According to campaign finance records for the period ending Oct. 24, Abbott raised $26 million. A significant portion of that amount—at least $6 million—came from Musk and others linked to the technology sector and data centers.
Elon Musk—File Photo
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is entering the final stretch of the midterm elections with a clear advantage in campaign resources over his Democratic rival, Gina Hinojosa. Among the notable contributions is a $5 million donation from Elon Musk, at a time when the debate over data centers and the development of artificial intelligence has become one of the central issues in the race.
Politics
With $446 million for midterm elections, Musk is already largest political donor in modern US history
Emmanuel Alejandro Rondón
Cash surplus and source of funds
According to campaign finance records for the period ending Oct. 24, Abbott raised $26 million. A significant portion of that amount—at least $6 million—came from Musk and other figures linked to the tech sector and data centers, according to the analysis by Politico. With one week to go before the Nov. 3 election, his main political action committee had about $8.6 million in cash.
Hinojosa raised $17.5 million during the same period, with contributions from labor unions, national Democratic organizations and $1 million from Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker. However, her campaign account held less than $1 million in the final stretch of the campaign.
Texas' role in artificial intelligence
Abbott has publicly advocated for making Texas a leader in the artificial intelligence development. In recent months, he ordered state agencies to temporarily pause permits for new data center projects, a measure he has justified as a way to establish guidelines and ensure that these facilities benefit local communities. The governor himself has noted that the goal is to require "guidelines and safeguards" and to ensure that the projects are "additive."
The Democratic candidate has sought to make Abbott's ties to the tech industry one of the central themes of her campaign. On Tuesday, in a statement released after news broke of Elon Musk's $5 million donation, Hinojosa framed the race with these words: "This is the One Fight of this election: does Texas belong to the people, or is this the billionaires' world and we just live here?"
Musk's business presence in the state
During the same fundraising period, Abbott also received $200,000 from the Anthropic employee PAC and $300,000 from Tom Brown, the company's co-founder, along with other contributions from business leaders involved in data center development.
Several polls show Abbott in the lead, although Hinojosa remains competitive and, in some polls, within the margin of error.
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