Elon Musk’s PAC Spends $100 Million on Ads Attacking Democrats Over Transgender Policy in Midterms 2026

Elon Musk’s political action committee, America PAC, has launched a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign centered on transgender policy issues, targeting Democratic Senate candidates in several competitive midterm races this fall.

According to reporting from The New York Times, Musk has authorized the PAC to spend more than $100 million during the current election cycle, with an initial wave of ads focused heavily on transgender rights running across television, digital platforms and streaming services. The campaign marks the first large-scale, trans-focused advertising push of the 2026 midterm cycle from a major Republican-aligned outside group, according to AdImpact, a firm that tracks political advertising spending.

Which races are being targeted

The ads have targeted Democratic candidates in four competitive Senate races: Rep. James Talarico in Texas, Sen. Sherrod Brown in Ohio, state Rep. Josh Turek in Iowa, and former Rep. Mary Peltola in Alaska. Additional ads have also targeted Michigan candidate Abdul El-Sayed, according to reporting from Truthout and Erin in the Morning, a newsletter focused on transgender policy coverage. America PAC has also placed some advertising in New Hampshire and Maine, though those ads reportedly did not focus on transgender issues.

The advertisements vary by candidate but generally center on claims about gender-affirming care, transgender participation in sports, and related cultural themes. One ad targeting Turek states that he “voted to spend our tax dollars on sex change surgeries for children” and “voted to let biological men enter girls’ locker rooms and bathrooms,” according to a copy of the ad shared by AdImpact Politics. Other ads have made similar claims about the remaining candidates, addressing topics such as school bathroom policy and transgender athletes in women’s sports.

A shift in campaign strategy

Axios reporter Mike Zapler noted that the emphasis on transgender issues represents a departure from the broader pattern of Republican Senate advertising so far this cycle. According to AdImpact’s tracking data, transgender-focused messaging had been a comparatively minor theme in GOP Senate ads prior to America PAC’s rollout.

The strategic emphasis comes despite polling that generally shows economic concerns, rather than transgender policy, as the dominant issue for voters heading into the midterms. Zapler noted that Republican strategists appear to be drawing on the perceived effectiveness of similar messaging used during the 2024 presidential campaign, when advertising focused on transgender issues was widely credited with damaging Kamala Harris’ presidential bid.

Some of the targeted candidates have already shifted their public positions on related policy questions ahead of the ad campaign. Turek’s campaign has issued statements opposing transgender women’s participation in women’s sports and opposing what his campaign described as “taxpayer-funded sex changes.” Brown, in his 2024 campaign, also ran advertising referencing transgender athletes, including swimmer Lia Thomas, an approach some observers characterized at the time as an attempt to neutralize similar attacks from Republican opponents.

Responses from targeted campaigns

Representatives for some of the targeted candidates have pushed back publicly on America PAC’s advertising campaign. A spokesperson for El-Sayed’s Senate campaign in Michigan, Cole Wozniak, addressed Musk’s spending directly in a statement to local press.

“It’s no surprise that the world’s first trillionaire would be trying to buy a Senate seat,” Wozniak said.

Wozniak also indicated that the campaign intends to keep its focus elsewhere rather than engaging directly on the transgender policy attacks. “Michiganders will see right through this,” Wozniak said, “and will send Abdul to the Senate this November to take on the corruption by getting money out of politics, putting money in your pocket, and passing Medicare for All.”

El-Sayed separately drew public attention last month for declining to engage when Fox News host Jesse Watters pressed him on transgender rights during a televised interview, a moment that some commentators compared to the political approach taken by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani in similar media appearances.

Musk’s history on transgender issues

Musk’s involvement in transgender-focused political advertising predates the current cycle. A Reuters investigation previously found that Musk contributed $50 million to a far-right political action committee called Citizens for Sanity in 2022, a group with ties to former Trump adviser Stephen Miller that ran a series of ads focused on transgender-related topics in that cycle’s competitive races.

Musk has also spoken publicly and personally about transgender issues in the context of his own family. His daughter, model Vivian Wilson, came out as transgender in 2020. Musk has since made public comments critical of that decision, at one point saying she “was killed by the woke mind virus” and adding, “Now, the woke mind virus will die.”

Broader political context

The advertising blitz arrives as Republicans face what political analysts have broadly described as a challenging midterm environment, with voters across the political spectrum expressing frustration over economic conditions, including elevated gas prices tied in part to the conflict involving Iran. Some conservative commentators have framed America PAC’s strategy as an effort to mobilize base voters around cultural issues even in an environment where economic concerns dominate broader public polling.

Conservative strategist Terry Schilling of the American Principles Project has previously described attacks centered on transgender participation in women’s sports as a deliberate entry point for broader political messaging on transgender issues, telling CNN in earlier remarks that such messaging helped make “opponents of the LGBT movement comfortable with talking about transgender issues” more broadly.

With America PAC’s advertising campaign still in its early stages and additional spending expected as the November midterms approach, transgender policy is likely to remain a prominent flashpoint in several of the cycle’s most competitive Senate races. Whether the strategy proves effective will likely depend on how voters in these individual states weigh the issue against other concerns, including the economy, as Election Day draws closer.