Musk makes light of defeats after record spend on Republican candidates

Elon Musk joked on X after Republicans were defeated in the US midterm elections, following reported spending of $446 million to support the party’s candidates. Democrats took control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives, while Republican Ken Paxton lost his Texas Senate race to James Talarico. The Republican-aligned Senate Leadership Fund, which received $158 million from Musk in September, had backed Paxton. Texas voters rejected Paxton’s plan to make the state an AI hub through rapid data-centre construction, while Talarico campaigned for tighter regulation.