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As Republicans suffered a landslide defeat and Texas elected its first Democratic governor in more than three decades, one of the biggest losers of the U.S. midterms was not on the ballot: billionaire Elon Musk.
The world’s richest man spent nearly half a billion dollars to back Republican candidates and keep Texas red — a state home to his automaker Tesla, rocket-to-AI company SpaceX and a planned chipmaking venture between the two.
Those bets unravelled as Democrats seized both chambers of U.S. Congress and Gina Hinojosa defeated Greg Abbott in the Texas governor’s race, in a stinging rebuke to U.S. President Donald Trump, a close Musk ally whom the billionaire helped elect.
Musk, who urged his followers on X to vote Republican as recently as Tuesday, now faces a resurgent Democratic Party that he has spent years antagonizing.
Musk has most recently drawn scrutiny from Democratic lawmakers over restrictionson satellite communications used by Ukraine’s military.
But Democrats seem particularly interested, according to multiple reports in U.S. media, at investigating Musk’s months spent in 2025 spearheading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Trump tapped Musk to lead that initiative despite Musk’s apparent conflicts of interest leading several companies subject to government oversight, as well as outstanding regulatory probes.
DOGE team activities led to widespread dismantling of foreign aid programs, as well as allegations that team members breached privacy laws by illegally accessing the sensitive data of Americans.
Filmmaker Alex Gibney discusses the making of his new four-hour documentary about Elon Musk, telling CBC’s Jackson Weaver why he sees the tech oligarch’s growing influence and ‘unchecked power’ as a serious threat.
One of the lawmakers is Robert Garcia, the next House oversight committee chair, who had a blunt, two-word message for Republicans and their allies on Tuesday evening: “Lawyer up.”
Separately, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments in a DOGE-related lawsuit filed by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics. The government watchdog is seeking public records about DOGE’s activities.
The GOP’s largest donor threatened retaliation last month on his social media platform after a report said Democrats were considering probes into his companies if they won midterms.
Texas frictions
One of Musk’s biggest challenges could be slower approvals for the data centres crucial to tapping the $28.5 trillion US…
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