The Senate Leadership Fund, the leading Republican Senate super PAC, raised a record $272.9 million from July through September, including $209.7 million from donors, and entered the final weeks before the Nov. 3 midterms with more than $155 million in cash. Elon Musk supplied most of that money, giving $158 million in September through an affiliated Texas PAC supporting Republican Ken Paxton. The Democratic Senate Majority PAC also reported a record $151 million for the quarter. To defend its 53-seat majority, the SLF paused ads in North Carolina after spending more than $30 million there, shifted resources to Kansas, and committed $15 million to defend Sen. Pete Ricketts in Nebraska. Democrat James Talarico raised $64 million in the third quarter, a Senate record, in a Texas race that has become one of the most expensive in the country.
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