New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez today (Sept. 14) raised red flags over a tidalwave of cash from Elon Musk and President Trump’s personal political action committee in a last-ditch effort to swing midterm elections.
Musk announced last week (Sept. 4) that he’ll spend as much as $120 million on Republican races in eight states, according to The New York Times.
Trump finally authorized his “MAGA Inc” personal super PAC to unleash more than $400 million in cash to elect Republicans, Cortez said in a release.
“I know there’s a lot of speculation right now about what I’ll decide to do in 2028… But I wanted to write to you today to be direct about what I’m focused on,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a fundraising appeal to supporters.
“On Nov. 3rd, voters will decide control of the House and Senate. They will decide whether this dangerous administration will spend its final two years with a check on their power, or whether things could get worse.
“Some believe foolishly that the midterms will take care of themselves. I’ve heard that from elected officials, pundits, and operatives. We’ve seen that overconfidence on display in the media.
“That kind of complacency is how we grasp defeat from the jaws of victory. What happened in the last few days alone should put an end to any cockiness.
Both Musk and Trump, she says, are launching a last-minute blitz to influence voters close to election day.
“One man and one corrupt president now will flood every competitive race in America with cash,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
Musk plans to target Senate races in at least five states — Alaska, Iowa, Maine, Michigan and Ohio — and is eyeing North Carolina, Georgia and Texas, according to The Times, citing two people with knowledge of the Musk’s super PAC’s plans.
“This is what the concentration of wealth and power looks like in an oligarchy. A television ad in a place like Montana to decide control of the House of Representatives, paid for by men who do not care what happens to working families across America,” she added.
“Musk and Trump do not spend this kind of money on races they believe are lost. They spend because they know they can win and hold the House and Senate.
“They spend because they believe Democrats might spend the next eight weeks patting ourselves on the back instead of organizing.”
All of this is why I am not spending this fall thinking about myself. I am spending it working my butt off to deliver a majority in the House and the Senate.
Across this country, I have endorsed candidates I believe in: Sam Forstag, a former smokejumper and union organizer, running for an open House seat in Montana that Republicans are counting on; Abdul El-Sayed who won his Senate primary in Michigan against roughly $70 million in spending (and control of the Senate may well run through his race!); Angie Nixon, a state representative from Jacksonville, taking on a sitting Republican senator in Florida without a dime of corporate PAC money.
“My entire campaign is mobilizing resources, not just to get me re-elected or build for a future campaign, but most importantly to win the midterms and take back the majority so we can make progress on issues like Medicare for All, universal childcare, a living wage, and more.”
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Keith Girard has four decades of experience as an award-winning reporter, editor-in-chief, and senior media executive. Keith’s career began in Washington, D.C., where he was a reporter for The Washington Post and a contributing editor for Regardie’s and Washingtonian magazines. He also worked as a writer/producer in CNN’s Washington Bureau and has written non-fiction books on the U.S. Marines in the Gulf War and Donald Trump and two novels, “The Heidelberg Conundrum” and “The Curse of Northam Bay.”