The tech mogul has pledged to fund moderate Democrats in primary races to oust incumbents he considers to be too extreme.
Elon Musk said he intends to fund moderate challengers in Democratic primary races, with his pledge coming in response to criticism from a Democrat lawmaker that the tech mogul is using his massive reach on social media to have an outsized influence on American politics.
Musk has been using X, the social media platform that he owns, to voice his opinions on federal programs, policies, and legislation that he opposes.
In a flurry of X posts in recent days, the tech mogul said he was against a sweeping 1,547-page bill that would have extended government funding through March 2025, telling his 200-plus million followers on the platform to “Stop the steal of your tax dollars” while adding that any lawmaker who votes for the spending bill deserves to be voted out in the 2026 mid-term election.
President-elect Donald Trump also expressed his opposition to the bill, which was ultimately voted down. A second version of the measure also failed to pass while House lawmakers passed a third version in bipartisan fashion on Dec. 20, sending it to the Senate and moving a crucial step closer towards averting a looming government shutdown that was set to take place at 12:01 a.m. ET on Dec. 21.
In a fiery floor speech on Dec. 18, Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.) criticized Musk’s opposition to the bill and his apparent influence on the U.S. political scene.
“Can you imagine what the next two years are going to be like if every time that Congress works its will and then there’s a tweet? Or from an individual who has no official portfolio, who threatens members on the Republican side with a primary? And they succumb?” Neal said in a clip re-posted by the Wall Street Mav account on X.
Musk, who co-leads Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative to cut government waste and slash burdensome regulations, responded to the post by saying he plans to support moderate Democratic candidates as a way to push out politicians that he sees as working against the interest of voters.
“Forgot to mention that I’m also going to be funding moderate candidates in heavily Democrat districts, so that the country can get rid of those who don’t represent them,” Musk wrote in the Dec. 19 post on X.
Neal, ranking member of the House Ways and Means Committee, has not publicly responded to Musk’s remarks by publication time.
Following the failure of the 1,547-page bill to pass, a pared-down, Trump-backed proposal was put forward—and then voted down.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) announced on Friday morning that a third “Plan C” bill had been put together. It funds the government until mid-March and includes $110 billion in disaster aid, $30 billion in farm aid, and a one-year extension to the farm bill.
The measure cleared the House on Friday and is in the Senate as of publication time.