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The trillion-dollar man is trying to buy an election, but could he be $276 million too late?

The New York Times reported on Monday that Elon Musk has dumped hundreds of millions of dollars into various Republican groups and his super PAC ahead of November’s midterm election. It’s the most money any one person has ever contributed to a political campaign, and it comes from an uber-wealthy, highly controversial, ultra-conservative South African businessman.

But while this number is staggering and is more evidence of why Citizens United was one of the worst Supreme Court decisions in modern history, could it be too late to impact a midterm election when early voting has already started in some areas and Election Day is mere weeks away?

The Winds Are Shifting

The New Republic reported earlier last week some interesting analysis from Democratic data firm TargetSmart. It reveals that Latino early-vote turnout is “dramatically outpacing” turnout from both 2022 and 2024.

You read that right. 

Latinos are early voting at a rate higher than they did during the hotly contested race between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. In fact, TargetSmart reports that as of October 8, Latino voters made up almost 8 percent of the early vote in 229 counties across the country in hotly contested states, including Michigan, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Virginia, Ohio, and Florida.

This is up from a little over 4 percent in 2024. That’s almost double.

“While it’s still early, it’s incredibly unusual to see any group outperform presidential turnout at this point in the cycle,” said Tom Bonier, a senior adviser with TargetSmart, to The New Republic’s Greg Sargent. “Latino turnout tends to drop more in midterms. So seeing this early surge suggests we’ll potentially see historic levels of Latino engagement.”

The Numbers Behind the Change

Why the shift? The New Republic cites the economy as the number one driver (according to a recent NBC poll, 74 percent of Latinos are down on Trump’s economy nationwide), but one can’t ignore how ICE has chosen to target and racially profile many Latinos in their anti-immigration sweeps. Families have been destroyed. Lives have been lost and ruined, while detainees languish in ICE detention centers. Then there’s the fact that people have been trafficked to countries they aren’t even from as ICE tries to meet made-up deportation quotas.

The same NBC poll finds 69 percent of Latinos are upset over this administration’s anti-immigration tactics, while 58 percent are upset over how it has handled border security.

Too Musk, Too Late?

Musk’s big-spender moves began in July, before the Republican Party’s hard-flop midterm convention. Prior to then, he’d only dropped a “mere” $90 million into the GOP’s campaign to hold onto Congress. And Musk’s cash rush certainly explains the fundraising deficit between the parties. 

But the spend is also a sign of weakness and fear that the GOP will not be able to overcome how grossly unpopular their policies are. So maybe they can trick voters with more AI “defund the police” ads or by knocking on doors with anti-socialism flyers?

With the economy in tatters while millions who have exhausted their unemployment benefits struggle to find work, this move can be summed up in four words—not a great plan.

The Real Surge Versus Splurge

Voters aren’t scared of socialism or crime (which is down). Voters are scared of how they will pay their bills as their tax dollars go toward a war of choice that lines the pockets of billionaires and the world’s first trillionaire, who is also one of the government’s biggest contractors.

Voters are afraid of ICE being a federalized police force that answers to no one, kidnaps people off the streets without due process and shoots immigrants and citizens alike without consequence.

And no ad campaign or cash-fueled GOP ground game can make you forget you don’t have a job or that your loved ones are living in fear.

This surge of Latino voters is just another indicator that reality trumps any GOP cash grab. It’ll take more than a flood of bad ads and disinformation to make people forget they can’t afford groceries.

It’ll take more than a flyer about the imaginary creep of communism to stop a movement against this administration.

The people are speaking out: Enough is enough.

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