Elon Musk Needs To Purchase One other Election

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk has a knack for leveraging himself into the media highlight, and barely one month into the brand new 12 months he has already hit the trifecta of intercourse, politics, and extra intercourse. The intercourse bookends are of curiosity as a result of they layer one other double whammy onto Tesla’s ongoing model repute disaster. With politics within the center, they may additionally upend Musk’s foray into the race for US Senate in Kentucky, the place an all-out brawl has erupted amongst Republicans vying for an open slot this 12 months.

Why Kentucky?

The open seat is as a result of retirement of longtime Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, who has served since 1985. It supplies Musk with one other alternative to place his private stamp on the federal authoritiesas if he hasn’t stamped on it sufficient already.

One other Republican is just about assured substitute McConnell in deep crimson Kentucky. A nominee will materialize when Republican voters forged their ballots within the major election, and Musk is decided to have a hand within the matter.

Considerably oddly, although, Musk declined to assist both of the 2 frontrunners amongst Republican candidates vying for the nomination. In accordance with a January 19 report by the Kentucky information group Courier-JournalMusk has donated $10 million to a PAC backing Nate Morris, who at the moment sits in third place within the crowded race.

The Courier–Journal notes that the majority polls favor the 2 candidates forward of Morris. They’re former Kentucky lawyer basic Daniel Cameron and US Consultant Andy Barr, each of whom have the benefit of identify recognition. Cameron was additionally the Republican nominee for governor within the 2023 election cycle.

Cash Down The Drain

Followers of three-dimensional chess might make the case that Musk really needs Morris to fail. In any case, 2025 is loads totally different than 2024, when Musk bankrolled US President Trump and different Republican candidates into workplace. The general public temper has soured on each Musk and the Republican Celebration since these heady days of the 2024 election cycle, as mirrored in Tesla’s declining gross sales figures and up to date elections, too.

A living proof is final spring’s Supreme Court docket election in Wisconsin. Musk dropped a cool $20 million in assist of Republican candidate Brad Schimel, who might have received by a squeaker if it was 2024. Trump received the state by 1 level that 12 months. Nonetheless, this being 2025, Democratic candidate Susan Crawford sailed into workplace by 10 factors over Schimel. Political analysts attribute the 11-point unfold partly to a response towards Musk’s position within the Trump administration.

Then there’s the race for New Jersey governor final 12 months. Whereas Musk didn’t have a public-facing position in New Jersey, his place as head of Trump’s “DOGE” workplace supplied Democratic candidate Mikie Sherrill with a juicy alternative to pummel Republican hopefuls all through the election cycle. Sherrill cruised to a straightforward victory in November over Republican rival Jack Ciattarelli, upending predictions that the race would come right down to the wire.

“Of explicit be aware from the exit polls was that three-quarters of voters had made up their minds by the tip of September and Sherrill was their clear alternative, particularly given how shut the candidates have been in election season polls,” NJ Highlight Information reported on November 10.

The Grok Impact

In fact, a extra simple clarification for Musk’s $10 million guess on the Kentucky race is that Musk needs Morris to win. Nonetheless, that’s going to be a fair more durable row to hoe, contemplating the 2 sex-related episodes that bubbled up in January.

In the beginning of the month, Musk’s already-raunchy X (previously Twitter) social media website acquired even raunchier, after a Bloomberg reporter observed that X customers can undress pictures of non-consenting individuals — primarily girls in addition to ladies — on the click on of a button with the gleeful help of Musk’s AI chatbot Grok.

On January 22, the Heart for Countering Digital Hate ran the numbers beneath the headline, “Grok floods X with sexualized pictures of ladies and youngsters.”

“Grok produced an estimated 3 million sexualized pictures together with 23,000 of kids,” CCDH emphasised.

Though the preliminary media uproar quieted down considerably by the tip of the month, a bipartisan group of 35 state attorneys has reportedly launched an effort to cease Musk from enabling his chatbot to generate non-consensual sexualized pictures.

No phrase but on whether or not or not Kentucky Lawyer Normal Russell Coleman is a part of the hassle, however the matter is actually of curiosity to him, significantly with regard to social media. On January 27 Coleman, a Republican, introduced {that a} federal court docket has upheld a brand new Kentucky state regulation requiring registered youngster intercourse offenders to make use of their full names on social media.

The Jeffrey Epstein Impact

In mild of the Grok scandal, Coleman’s concentrate on intercourse offenders doesn’t bode properly for Morris or another candidate for workplace upon whom Musk has lavished his beneficiant assist, and now right here comes the Epstein scandal so as to add extra gas to the hearth.

Musk’s identify first surfaced in reference to the late intercourse offender Jeffery Epstein final July, when Musk took it upon himself to demand launch of the complete FBI information recording Epstein’s actions main as much as his 2019 demise in jail beneath considerably mysterious circumstances.

That demand turned out to be a case of irony in motion. Proof of contact between Musk and Epstein quickly emerged, although the file was slim and spotty, suggesting a merely circumstantial relationship at greatest. Musk dismissed the matter out of hand, and it was quickly forgotten within the crush of the information cycle.

That modified final week when the US Division of Justice lastly launched a brand new tranche of Epstein information containing particulars about his contacts with excessive profile males about city, together with Musk.

NBC Information reporter David Ingram was amongst these to pile on. “The information embody a minimum of 16 emails between Musk and Epstein in 2012 and 2013, together with a number of situations the place Musk expressed curiosity in visiting Epstein’s Caribbean island, which has since grow to be infamous as an alleged location for Epstein’s abuse of ladies and ladies,” Ingram wrote.

As for whether or not or not Musk manages to maintain his repute, and that of his EV firm, from sinking farther within the public eye, that relies upon partly on the Senate race in Kentucky. If Cameron, Barr, and the opposite Republicans vying to fill McConnell’s seat resolve they’ll make political hay out of Musk’s assist for Morris, get away the popcorn.

Picture: Tesla CEO Elon Musk is placing his thousands and thousands behind US Senate hopeful Nate Morris, who hopes to win the Republican nomination on his technique to the November 2026 basic election (by Zach Shahan through CleanTechnica archives).