The Senate Leadership Fund, the Republican Party's leading Senate super PAC, posted the largest quarterly haul in its history and entered the final weeks before the Nov. 3 midterm election with more than $155 million in cash, according to a new Federal Election Commission filing Thursday.
The SLF brought in $272.9 million from July through September, including $209.7 million from donors.
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk supplied the bulk of that money, giving the SLF $158 million in September through an affiliated Texas PAC created to support Republican Ken Paxton. His two contributions of $75 million and $83 million are among the largest political donations ever.
Musk's contribution alone also exceeded the Democratic Senate Majority PAC's entire third-quarter fundraising. That super PAC reported raising a record $151 million during the period and ended September with $111.8 million in cash, which the group said was its third-quarter record. The super PAC's FEC filings are not yet available.
The SLF's haul shattered its own previous records. The group brought in nearly $116 million in the third quarter of 2024 and $111 million in 2022. In 2020, when it filed monthly reports, SLF took in roughly $157 million from July through September. Its previous quarterly high was roughly $216 million in the final three months of 2020, according to a CNBC review of FEC filings.