WASHINGTON — Elon Musk has donated $10 million to help a Republican businessperson in the party’s primary race to succeed Sen. Mitch McConnell in Kentucky, in a sign that Musk, the world’s richest person, may be looking to play an influential role in the midterm elections.

The donation was described by a person briefed on the transaction, who insisted on anonymity to discuss the exchange.

The money went to a group supporting Nate Morris, who is locked in one of this year’s most competitive Republican primary races for Senate. Until now, Morris, a founder of a waste and recycling company, had been largely self-funding his campaign against Rep. Andy Barr of Kentucky and Daniel Cameron, a former state attorney general.

The donation, earlier reported by Axios, is Musk’s largest disclosed contribution of the 2026 midterm cycle — and it is notable because of his turbulent last year in Republican politics.

After spending hundreds of millions of dollars to elect President Donald Trump in 2024, Musk led the charge to cut the size of the federal government and served as an influential White House adviser. After a spectacular midyear fallout with Trump, the tech billionaire had harsh words for the Republican Party and made vague threats about starting a third party. But since the fall, he has worked to repair his relationship with Trump and has inched back toward the Republican fold.

This cycle, Musk has funded his own super PAC along with those tied to House and Senate Republican leadership.

Morris, a friend of Vice President JD Vance’s, is harshly critical of the Republican Party’s old establishment wing, which McConnell helped lead. Morris and Musk spoke recently about the candidate’s opposition to McConnell, the person briefed on the donation said.

Since at least 2023, Musk had called for McConnell to step down as the leader of Senate Republicans. The senator, in his 80s and facing health problems, made a widely expected announcement in 2025 that he would not run for reelection.

Morris appears to be something of an underdog, with Cameron leading in the relatively limited polling of the race. The primary election is May 19.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Theodore Schleifer/Haiyun Jiang
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