Chart: Carson Elm-Picard / MS NOW; Source: Forbes

Elon Musk was worth almost $200 billion at the beginning of 2024, the year he went all in on aligning himself with Donald Trump’s re-election bid. Since then, Musk has briefly become the world’s first trillionaire – and the biggest known political donor in the United States.

Musk’s ballooning wealth over the last two years– a gain of around $700 billion– has coincided with a political transformation, from previously a Democratic funder to one of the GOP’s most enthusiastic and generous backers. Now his future is increasingly intertwined with those new alliances– from federal contracts with the Trump administration to defenses against Democrat-led congressional investigations.

Musk is on track to be the election’s single biggest known political donor with almost half a billion dollars in spending ahead of the midterms, according to MS NOW’s tally of top individual donors at the federal level since 2010 based on campaign disclosures to the Federal Election Commission. He beat his own record this year after he contributed some $290 million to help Trump and Republicans win in 2024.

While there is not a clear direct link between Musk’s campaign contributions and the rapid growth in his fortune, his businesses’ contracts with the federal government have expanded over the past two years.

This cycle, Musk is pumping tons of cash into political organizations backing Republican candidates. So far he’s given at least $446 million in political donations to his own super PAC, America PAC, and other political groups and campaigns, according to FEC disclosures.

His single biggest fiscal priority this cycle so far has been the competitive Texas Senate contest between GOP Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Democratic state Rep. James Talarico. Musk has poured well over $200 million into the race through various super PACs supporting Paxton.

He’s been a prolific commenter on X, the social media platform he owns, attacking Democrats and warning that he will retaliate if lawmakers investigate him after the midterms. “Those who pick fights with me should understand that I will find out who is really pulling the strings and come for them, not just their puppets,” Musk wrote on X. “Live by the sword, die by the sword.”

His enormous spending has itself become a central focus for Talarico and his supporters. “This Senate seat doesn’t belong to Elon Musk. This Senate seat belongs to you. It belongs to the people of Texas,” Talarico said at a rally on Tuesday. “We have an affordability crisis because we have a corruption crisis.”

It’s an about face for Musk, who just last year indicated he’d rein in his vast political spending. “I think I’ve done enough,” he said in May 2025 after a fierce public blowback to his role in the early months of Trump’s second term.

Since that period, which marked the end of his official role in policymaking, public opinion about Musk has failed to improve. The majority of Americans, 65%, say they dislike Musk, according to YouGov’s popularity tracker, as of early October.

Musk’s enormous political contributions this year will represent less than one-tenth of one percent of his net worth.

The tech mogul is nearly a trillionaire. He officially crossed the trillionaire threshold earlier this year, but that valuation is tied to regular fluctuations in the stock market. His net worth was estimated to be nearly $920 billion, as of Thursday, according to data compiled by Forbes. The Bloomberg Billionaire Index, meanwhile, put his wealth at $913 billion.

The figure largely reflects his company stakes, including in his aerospace venture SpaceX and automaker Tesla, which both trade publicly. Both businesses have received billions of dollars in federal funds over the last two decades. Neither company responded to a request for comment on Thursday. Musk’s super PAC did not immediately offer a comment for this story and MS NOW was unable to reach Musk directly by email.

By December 2024, Musk’s net worth doubled in the wake of Trump’s election victory and his forthcoming return to office for a second term. Musk, who was the world’s richest billionaire at the end of that year, was frequently seen spending time with Trump’s inner circle during the transition period, including at Trump’s Mar-A-Lago golf club and traveling on his private plane.

Between 2024 and 2026, SpaceX’s valuation rose sharply as a result of the expansion of Musk’s AI business, known as SpaceXSI, along with the growth of his satellite internet-company, Starlink.

Some of his key firms are closely linked with the federal government, and a backlash among Democrats could weigh on parts of his empire in the long run. Under Trump, federal agencies have signed multiple contracts for use of Musk’s artificial-intelligence software, Grok, including the Pentagon and the General Services Administration.

An online chatbot recently launched by the White House to disseminate federal information also utilizes Grok, along with Google’s AI software. Musk recently changed the name of his artificial intelligence business from xAI to SpaceXSI following Trump’s rebranding of AI as “super intelligence.” Earlier this month, he told a user on X– the social-media platform he owns– that he would reflect Trump’s preferred moniker in the company’s name. If the House comes under Democratic control, as polls suggest, Musk is likely to face investigations into his business dealings and his four-month stint in the Trump administration.

After financially backing Trump’s presidential campaign, Musk was appointed to serve as a senior advisor and a co-leader of the government’s cost-cutting initiative, which he labeled the Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE made a series of controversial moves including the reduction of more than 300,000 federal workers, shuttering agencies created by Congress and suddenly slashing funding to aid programs that fed poor people around the world.

Democratic lawmakers serving on the House Judiciary Committee accused the administration of targeting staff and leadership at agencies that have pursued investigations into Musk’s businesses, pointing to personnel firings including inspector generals, according to a Feb. 2025 fact sheet. The White House said Musk did not play a direct role in firing decisions and Musk dismissed conflict of interest concerns.

Musk’s powerful role drew scrutiny given his numerous contracts with government entities. Trump notably attributed his departure in May 2025 to his criticism of a Republican-passed tax and spending bill that ended electrical-vehicle tax credits for Americans last year earlier than expected. Musk denied that the EV-credits attributed to his decision to leave Washington. He instead cited the statutory requirements for special government employees.

The president threatened to review Musk’s federal contracts amid their falling out, causing Musk’s personal wealth to nosedive by $34 billion that day, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index, the second-largest loss in the tracker’s history.

The two men made amends sometime in late 2025. Musk made a sharp political shift in 2024 after previously supporting mostly Democrats, who he referred to as “the kindness party” which notably largely supported the electric-vehicle boom that Musk championed. Prior to 2024, he donated modestly to Democratic candidates, but at a much smaller scale than his million-dollar donations to Republican groups in recent years.

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Thousands of Election Day observers are expected to be dispatched by the Democratic Party to monitor potential voter intimidation at polling places around the country.

The Association of State Democratic Committees, a branch of the Democratic National Committee representing state-level parties, trained more than 4,000 volunteers to notify the party’s voter protection programs if federal law enforcement is deployed while voters are casting their ballots on Tuesday. The individuals will be wearing blue on Election Day, according to a memo shared with MS NOW.

The volunteers will “provide a peaceful, secure presence at polling locations — countering intimidation, including from ICE and other federal agents, and reinforcing public confidence in the vote,” the memo states.

President Donald Trump and his allies have floated ordering Immigration and Custom Enforcement officers, National Guard troops and Federal Bureau of Investigations agents to polling sites, fueling concerns about election interference in the midterm elections, which historically favors the political party out of power in Washington. Testifying before the Senate earlier this fall, FBI Director Kash Patel, did not rule out sending agents to the polls, saying, “Election integrity is of paramount importance. This FBI will not shy away from that effort.” Federal law prohibits armed federal agents or military personnel at polling locations.

For years, Trump has pushed unsubstantiated claims about widespread voter fraud in the United States, and never conceded his 2020 election loss to former President Joe Biden. On Tuesday, Trump told reporters that he would respect the results of the midterms “if they’re honest.” Ahead of the midterms the Trump administration has threatened states over alleged noncitizen voting, arguing those cases have reached “emergency” proportions in California. MS NOW has found, however, that federal prosecutions based on those allegations remain low in California and across the country.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris taped a video message, first reported by MS NOW, for volunteers from the program, known as “Democracy Protectors” who are gathering on a virtual call on Wednesday.

“Thank you so very much for the work you do every day that is about lifting up the people, lifting their spirits, lifting their voice, lifting the importance of all people having the dignity they so rightfully deserve,” Harris says in the video.

Harris has been campaigning across the country, showing up in Wisconsin earlier this week and is expected to be in Georgia Thursday to stump with Sen. Jon Ossoff.

In addition to the blue-shirted volunteers, a senior Democratic lawmaker told MS NOW’s Stephanie Ruhle that Democrats will have 15,000 lawyers volunteering at poll sites across the country on Election Day.

The post Democrats are deploying volunteers wearing blue on Election Day. Here’s what they’ll do. appeared first on MS NOW.

Kamala Harris is keeping her options open.

The former vice president is spending the final days until Election Day stumping for Democrats in battleground states, including events in Wisconsin on Monday. As she emerges from keeping a relatively low profile, a string of recent public appearances is stirring chatter about her future.

In conversations with people who have known or worked for Harris, several said they were genuinely unsure whether she would ultimately launch another presidential bid in 2028. One person close to Harris said she was taking the pulse of the electorate, as she travels the country, to determine whether she fits the vision that voters want.

Harris is widely known for being cautious about decision-making, the people said, gathering as much information as possible before making a judgment call. A former 2024 campaign staffer described Harris’ moves since leaving the White House as “confusing,” offering little insight into whether she will make another play for the Oval Office.

It’s “the question of the hour,” the former staffer said. “She’s trying to be a figurehead now, but in a very careful way that doesn’t necessarily, in my mind, bode that she is gearing up to run.”

Harris herself says she hasn’t decided whether she will run for president again, and is instead focused on helping Democrats retake control of Congress. The midterms, however, will mark a defining moment for her party, as several progressive candidates — including democratic socialists — fight for seats in Congress. A person familiar with her thinking said Harris believes Americans are looking for aggressive executives after the Trump era.

“Folks are angry, you know, they’re pissed,” Harris said of voters in an August podcast interview with former Georgia state Rep. Stacey Abrams. “You can see through many of the recent elections, people are done with status quo and are not interested in a defense of status quo.”

As for the future of the Democratic Party, she added, “I think it’s too early to tell.”

The former vice president’s shifting policy positions over the years have created obstacles for her, including in 2024, when voters cited a lack of clarity about what she stood for.

Recently, Harris has advocated expanding the Supreme Court’s bench and called for “revisiting” abolishing the Electoral College. Earlier this month she condemned Israel’s “horrific” actions in Gaza, expressing regret that the Biden administration didn’t seek to restrict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayhu “sooner and more forcefully.”

A former Harris adviser said that in a presidential primary it’s imperative to “know where you are and have a conviction, and it becomes revealed over the course of the campaign if you don’t have a conviction.”

“It’s tough to run for president not knowing exactly the type of candidate [you want to be] and the positions you want to take,” the former adviser said.

Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, who wants to see Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York run in 2028, criticized Harris’ past rhetoric on economic policies, such as her previous support of Medicare for All before backing the expansion of Obamacare instead.

Affordability remains voters’ biggest priority in polling. “Economic populism is not in her gut,” Green said, recalling her 2024 debate with President Donald Trump. “She had beautiful answers on abortion. She had some pretty good answers on democracy. She threw not one punch on economic issues.”

A Harris fundraiser, who recently spoke with Harris by phone and requested anonymity to speak freely, expressed doubt that her donors would bankroll another presidential bid. Harris and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, another potential 2028 hopeful, also share overlapping donor networks, putting their fundraisers in a tough position if they both choose to enter the fray.

“I know her base of supporters. I know her friends. The Zen diagram on that is just pure crossover,” Newsom told CNN last month, denying that he would run if Harris jumped into the race. “I wouldn’t do that to people.”

Another Harris presidential run also risks reminding Democrats of a painful memory: Trump won both the popular vote and all seven swing states in the 2024 election.

“Part of her brand has been that she represented the future; she now really represents the past history, and that’s just a really big adjustment,” the former Harris adviser said.

Harris’ allies, though, caution party insiders not to count her out, given her high name recognition and favorability with voters. Harris remains a front-runner among potential 2028 contenders, according to early national polling gathered by MS NOW’s partner, FiftyPlusOne. Her sway with Black voters in particular would give her an outsize advantage, especially in states like South Carolina, the party’s first-in-the-nation primary.

Kevin Harris, a political consultant who served as chief of staff for Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign in Georgia, noted that the previous two Democratic presidential nominees — Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — both started and ended their primary cycles as the front-runner.

“It’s not uncommon in recent history where the people who ultimately got the presidency ran a few times before they got there,” said Harris, a Democratic strategist with no relation to the vice president. “She still is going to be the only person in that field that has ever gotten a significant amount of votes in every state. Nobody else starting out is going to even have that.”

If Harris eventually decides not to run, she maintains significant influence in the party. Several Democratic politicians have continued to seek out Harris for political advice by phone since her 2024 loss, according to a person familiar with the matter. She is also the third most popular Democrat in the country, behind former President Barack Obama and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, YouGov rankings show.

Because of that status, some Democrats advise possible 2028 rivals to tread lightly. Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin, seen as another likely candidate, recently said in an interview that Harris should not run again. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who was considered as her running mate in 2024, blasted Harris’ descriptions of him as overtly ambitious in her memoir as “blatant lies.”

Elsewhere, a handful of Democratic candidates in red states, including Kansas’ Adam Hamilton, Iowa’s Rob Sand and Alaska’s Mary Peltola, have also rebuffed questions about whether they would welcome Harris to campaign in their state. Harris told MS NOW’s Peter Alexander that she supports “them in doing whatever they need to do to win.”

Kevin Harris, the political consultant based in the South, says Black voters, a core constituency, “are very protective of her, and want to see proper respect given for what she has accomplished and what she symbolizes, her historical significance to the community.”

Former Vice President Harris will head to Georgia on Thursday to campaign for Sen. Jon Ossoff, who is drawing his own 2028 buzz. She will also deliver the keynote address at the Fulton County Democratic Party’s annual dinner and join a get-out-the-vote effort with the NAACP in Atlanta. First, she is slated to headline Monday’s NAACP town hall in Wisconsin.

In recent days, she has appeared with candidates in Nevada and New Hampshire, two other early states on the Democratic National Committee’s primary calendar, as well as in Mississippi. Florida Democratic Senate candidate Angie Nixon, a progressive firebrand, will also join Harris on a virtual organizing call later this week.

Other names in the 2028 mix are making moves of their own.

Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is spending the final days before the midterms on the campaign trail, including stops in Georgia with Ossoff and Wisconsin with gubernatorial candidate David Crowley, with whom Harris is also campaigning. In recent months, Buttigieg has hired more staffers at his political organization, known as Win the Era, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly reiterated on Friday that he was weighing a presidential campaign after the midterms. Meanwhile, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore recently dodged a question during his gubernatorial debate about whether he would serve out a full second term. Asked again during an interview with ABC News on Sunday if he was committed to fulfilling the term, he said, “Yeah, I wouldn’t be running for re-election if I was thinking about anything else, to be clear,” Moore said.

The 2028 countdown starts as soon as midterm election results are in.

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