Musk Deletes 'Vote Red' Tweet After GOP Midterm Disaster

Elon Musk deleted a 'Vote red today!' tweet after a wave of Democratic midterm wins in both the Senate and the House.

An archived version showed Musk's post had 11.9 million views and 307,000 likes before it disappeared.

A screen recording posted on Wednesday, Nov. 4, by X user @Shilllin scrolled through Musk's feed on the site — which he owns — and clicked on a tweet reading 'Vote red today!'

A message then popped up reading, 'The post you are trying to reply to has been deleted or is not visible to you.'

An archived snapshot confirmed the post racked up those numbers before it was deleted, according to Snopes.

Musk contributed $474 million during the 2026 election cycle, according to The New York Times.

About $212 million, nearly half of that total, went toward supporting Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Times reported.

Paxton, 63, was ultimately defeated by Democrat James Talarico.

With a net worth of around $788 billion, the Tesla co-founder and CEO, 55, is the world's richest person, according to Forbes.

Musk's backing helped Texas Republicans spend over $159 million on TV, radio and digital ads, the Texas Tribune reported on Oct. 15.

This figure was twice as much as Talarico spent with his campaign at the time of reporting, according to AdImpact data cited by the Tribune.

Musk, whose companies SpaceX and Tesla are headquartered in Texas, publicly endorsed Paxton on Oct. 20.

'The fate of Texas and America is at stake.

Vote for @KenPaxtonTX today,' he wrote on X.

With Paxton's defeat, Talarico, 37, earned Democrats their first Senate victory in Texas since 1988.

The Associated Press called the race for Talarico at 11:03 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Nov. 3.

With 99% of the vote counted, Talarico received 5,445,156 votes, beating Paxton by around 12 percentage points.

Around 1 a.m. ET on Wednesday, Musk appeared to react to the loss, writing on X that building data centers in space was looking 'pretty appealing' and joking that his 'election-interfering space lasers didn't work.'

By that morning, Musk's net worth had fallen $23.7 billion, more than 2.5% of his fortune, as shares in SpaceX and Tesla dropped following the election results, Forbes reported.

Democrats took control of Congress and Texas' state leadership in the midterms — despite Musk spending more than $450 million to keep that from happening.

Lawmakers and state officials now promise to investigate the world's richest man, potentially putting him in legal jeopardy and stymying his ballooning wealth.

Musk, the CEO of companies including Tesla and SpaceX, has emerged as a major target for Democrats as they take control of Congress.

That gives Democrats the power to issue subpoenas, launch investigations and hold hearings.

Democrats have particularly singled out Musk's spearheading of widescale government cuts through the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, as a key target for their investigations.

Rep. James Walkinshaw, D-Va., said Monday, 'Elon Musk waved a chainsaw on stage and laughed while he fired public servants and gutted the services Americans rely on …

He must answer for it under oath.'

Democrats have also already sent letters to Musk in light of reports he cut off Ukraine's access to his Starlink service, CNN reports.

They have raised questions about the billions in government contracts Musk's companies have with the federal government and whether there has been any impropriety.