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Elon Musk is spending big to boost Trump’s turnout. Republicans worry it might flop.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk has placed a huge bet on boosting former President Donald Trump’s campaign ground game – but it’s an open question whether it will pay off.

Mr. Musk has dropped just shy of $75 million into America PAC since July, according to documents filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) this week, making him one of the biggest-spending supporters of the former president in this campaign cycle.

Why We Wrote This

Tech billionaire Elon Musk is throwing himself – and his money – into a last-minute effort to boost the Trump campaign’s ground game. But get-out-the-vote efforts aren’t the rocket science he’s used to.

The group is coordinating closely with the Trump campaign to spur voter turnout in the key battleground states, taking advantage of new FEC guidance that for the first time allows close coordination between campaigns and such outside groups.

But the organization appears to be scrambling to build out a robust field program to supplement a Trump campaign field operation that’s significantly smaller than it was in 2020.

Such efforts on both sides are key since turnout could well determine who wins the presidency.

Mr. Musk is known for taking big risks and novel approaches in his enterprises, from Tesla to the social platform X to SpaceX, that only sometimes pay off. With no time for a second try, there are signs that this new operation isn’t yet where he might want it to be.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk has placed a huge bet on boosting former President Donald Trump’s campaign ground game – but it’s an open question whether that wager will pay off.

Mr. Musk has dropped just shy of $75 million into America PAC since July, according to documents filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) this week, making him one of the biggest-spending supporters of the former president in this campaign cycle. His group has spent more than $110 million in all, most of it on get-out-the-vote operations to boost Mr. Trump’s fortunes. The new super PAC is coordinating closely with the Trump campaign to spur voter turnout in the key presidential battleground states for the former president, taking advantage of new FEC guidance that for the first time allows close coordination between campaigns and outside groups.

But the brand-new organization appears to be scrambling to build out a robust field program to supplement a Trump campaign field operation that’s significantly smaller than it was in 2020 – one that Republicans privately fret could be swamped by a robust turnout game from Vice President Kamala Harris and her allies. Turnout could well determine who wins the 2024 presidential election, which polls show is a tied race in most battleground states. Mr. Musk is known for taking big risks and novel approaches in his enterprises, from Tesla to the social platform X to SpaceX, that only sometimes pay off. And with no time for a second try, there are signs that this particular operation isn’t yet where he might want it to be.

Why We Wrote This

Tech billionaire Elon Musk is throwing himself – and his money – into a last-minute effort to boost the Trump campaign’s ground game. But get-out-the-vote efforts aren’t the rocket science he’s used to.

With less than three weeks until Election Day and early voting already underway in many swing states, America PAC still listed open jobs in nearly 50 metro areas on its website as of Thursday, though a source familiar with its operations said that just showed the group was continuing to scale up further and that it is exceeding internal metrics laid out in July.

America PAC fired its initial vendors in July and only really ramped up its efforts in August after Mr. Musk endorsed Mr. Trump. In September, it fired and replaced its vendors in Arizona and Nevada, and has reportedly been beset by some tech problems.

“It’s not 100% as good, probably, as they would like it to be or we would like it to be – but it’s a lot of added coverage regardless,” one senior Trump campaign aide says about Mr. Musk’s group. “Any time you’re hiring lots of people [quickly] and covering lots of ground, you’re going to have a little bit of garbage in there, a little bit of bad performance. But it’s at the margins.”

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