Elon Musk deleted an X post urging voters to support Republicans after Democrats won a sweeping victory in the U.S. midterm elections. According to Sina Finance, Musk had posted “Vote red today!” on Election Day, but the post disappeared from his X timeline hours after the results. On Wednesday morning, as the outcome became clear, he joked on X about his failed spending effort, writing, “Looks like my space lasers used to interfere with the election didn’t work this time,” and separately said that space data centers looked “quite enticing.”
Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, was the midterm elections’ biggest individual donor, spending more than $440 million to support Republican candidates. Texas, where he moved the companies’ registrations, was a key focus: he reportedly spent $224 million backing Republicans in the state. He also called James Talarico, a Democrat who was elected to the Senate, a “far-left extremist,” a “disgusting guy” and “an outright villain” in posts on X; those posts remained visible.
The election results could have significant implications for Musk in areas including regulation, contracts and policy. On Wednesday, as investors assessed the results, Tesla and SpaceX shares fell, while data center companies’ stocks also declined.