Kentucky elected Mitch McConnell to the U.S. Senate 42 years ago, and through all those years, McConnell worked relentlessly to radically change American law and politics to allow billionaires and corporations to pour massive amounts of money into election campaigns.
While demolishing campaign finance laws, McConnell and associates raised billions of dollars for Republican candidates around the country, making him the leader of his party in the Senate and opening the floodgates to a deluge of dollars into U.S. elections. That’s what bankrolls the constant stream of yammering political ads on television.
As McConnell moves off the national stage, it’s ironic that Elon Musk is replacing Kentucky’s senior Senator as a leading source of Republican campaign funds. He’s a businessman and government contractor who’s never been elected to anything.
Musk is using the opportunity provided by McConnell’s work to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars into Republican campaigns and gain more influence than elected members of Congress have over U.S. policy.
McConnell’s Congress has abandoned its constitutional responsibility to act on behalf of Americans, and the weakness of this “do-nothing” Congress has left a vacuum that Musk is eagerly filling.
Musk bought his way into this position when he gave about $300 million in 2024 to support the campaigns of Donald Trump and the GOP. He’s enhancing his position by giving nearly $450 million to Republicans so far in this election cycle, and his total will be much higher when reports are filed after the election.
This year, Musk has given $158 million to the Senate Leadership Fund, the Super PAC formed years ago by McConnell associates to funnel money to Republican candidates. McConnell used massive fundraising to build Republican influence in the Senate, and enact policies favoring campaign funders: banks, hedge funds, insurance and pharmaceutical companies, along with coal, gas, and oil interests.
In contrast, Musk is using his vast contributions to build his own influence, enhance his own businesses, and implement his own policies.
Musk and his companies, particularly SpaceX, have acquired enormous power inside the federal government – power unprecedented in American history. That’s helped make Musk the richest person in the world, with much of his wealth coming from American taxpayers through huge contracts and favorable treatment by the U.S. Government.
Last year, The New York Times reported that across government, “SpaceX is positioning itself to see billions of dollars in new federal contracts or other support… The boost in federal spending for SpaceX will come in part because of actions by President Trump and Mr. Musk’s allies and employees who now hold government positions. The company will also benefit from Trump policies that prioritize hiring commercial space vendors for everything from communications systems to satellite fabrication, areas in which SpaceX now dominates.”
Although the U.S. pays for SpaceX’s satellite systems that Ukraine uses to defend itself against Russian missile and drone attacks and to operate drones to strike Russia, Musk and SpaceX can control the systems. It’s not clear if he had U.S. approval, but Musk recently slowed or stopped the systems from operating – Ukraine lost control of its drones and couldn’t get life-saving early warnings about Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilians.
Musk’s actions come while Trump is boosting Russia’s war on Ukraine by waiving U.S. sanctions and buying Russian diesel fuel, so Musk and Trump are teaming up to drive American foreign policy away from an ally and into the arms of an adversary.
For years, Mitch McConnell and the Senate supported Ukraine and opposed Russian aggression. Now, because of McConnell’s work to allow unlimited campaign spending by billionaires, Elon Musk plays a more influential role in American policy than a meek and submissive Senate. Americans will wonder if that’s what McConnell intended as his legacy.
John Schaaf is a retired attorney and co-author of “Hidden History of Kentucky Political Scandals” published by The History Press. His email address is: John.Schaaf1975@gmail.com.