# Elon Musk 1.5M to Aurora Action Network On **e-file receipt date 2026-10-11**, twenty-three days before the general election, [[Aurora Action Network]] filed its third-quarter Form 3X and disclosed a **$1,500,000.00** itemized individual contribution from **[[Elon Musk]]**, contributed **2026-07-06**. It is the largest single line on the report and **80.6% of everything the committee raised in the quarter**. The receiving committee is an Alaska-addressed super PAC whose treasurer is **[[Thomas Datwyler]]**, and which spent no money on independent expenditure at all — it passed **$1,500,000.00** on to a **state ballot-measure committee**. ## Terms | Item | Detail | |---|---| | Contributor | **MUSK, ELON**, Lakeway, TX — entity type `IND` | | Employer / occupation on the filing | **Space Exploration Technologies Corp.** / **CEO** | | Recipient | [[Aurora Action Network]], FEC **C00907584** — Super PAC (Independent Expenditure-Only), unauthorized | | Amount | **$1,500,000.00** | | Contribution date | **2026-07-06** | | FEC receipt date | **2026-10-11**, document received **13:13:36 ET** | | Document | **Form 3XN**, file **2019466**, coverage **2026-07-01 to 2026-09-30**, report code `Q3`, original (not an amendment) | | Schedule and line | **`SA11AI`** — Schedule A, **Line 11(a), itemized contribution from an individual** | | Aggregate on the filing | **$1,500,000.00** — equal to the row, so this is the contributor's first money to this committee in the cycle as this document reports it | | Treasurer of record | **Thomas Datwyler**, Hudson, WI | | Committee address of record | Anchorage, AK | > **On the threshold.** Deals design doc **§7** puts **individual contributions of $1,000,000 or more** in > scope during the midterm window. This single row clears it at **1.5×** the floor on its own, and it is > the only receipt-side line at the $1M floor anywhere in the **2026-10-11** tranche. Per **FEC > Back-Sweep Standard Rule 5**, the line number is part of the fact: this is a **Line 11(a)** itemized > individual contribution, not a Line 17 other-federal-receipt, so it may properly be called a > contribution and the contributor properly called a donor. ## What the report establishes, line by line The quarter's receipts are **$1,861,500.00**, and **all fourteen receipt rows are itemized Line 11(a) contributions** summing to exactly that figure — there is no unitemized remainder on the receipt side. | Contributor | Amount | Date | Aggregate on the filing | |---|---|---|---| | **MUSK, ELON** — SpaceX, CEO | **$1,500,000.00** | 2026-07-06 | $1,500,000.00 | | **YASS, JEFF** — SIG, Managing Director | **$325,000.00** | 2026-07-08 | **$675,000.00** | | Twelve Alaska and out-of-state individuals and one business | **$36,500.00** combined | 2026-07-07 to 2026-09-10 | $500.00 to $10,000.00 each | Two donors are **98.0%** of the quarter. The twelve small donors are mostly Anchorage, Eagle River, Wasilla, Palmer and Seward addresses in the $500–$10,000 range. **The Form 3X summary reconciles.** Cash on hand opening **$314,567.40** plus receipts **$1,861,500.00** less disbursements **$1,985,385.40** equals cash on hand at close **$190,682.00**, exactly as reported — the arithmetic check **FEC Back-Sweep Standard Rule 2** requires before quoting a cash figure. Cycle-to-date, the report puts receipts at **$2,596,500.00** and disbursements at **$2,685,345.40**. ## The committee spent nothing on independent expenditure **File 2019466 contains no Schedule E.** An independent-expenditure-only committee reported a quarter with **zero itemized independent expenditures**. What it reported instead, on **Schedule B Line 29**, is three **"DONATION"** rows totalling **$1,750,000.00**: | Payee | Address | Date | Amount | Purpose | |---|---|---|---|---| | [[Repeal Now]] | PO Box 240382, Anchorage, AK | **2026-07-29** | **$1,000,000.00** | DONATION | | [[Repeal Now]] | PO Box 240382, Anchorage, AK | **2026-09-10** | **$500,000.00** | DONATION | | [[Make A Diff Inc]] | **Hudson, WI** | **2026-07-28** | **$250,000.00** | DONATION | All three carry election code **`O2026`** and the designation **`NON-ELECTION`** — money leaving the federal system, not spent in a federal race. **$1,500,000.00 of it went to Repeal Now, and $1,500,000.00 is what Musk put in.** The two figures match to the dollar, and the transfers begin **twenty-two days** after the contribution. The filing does not state that one funded the other and **this page does not assert it** — a super PAC's money is not earmarked and the committee held $314,567.40 at the start of the quarter. What the document does establish is that the committee's entire out-the-door spend in the quarter, net of overhead, equals the Musk contribution and went to a non-federal ballot-measure campaign. Operating expenditures were **$235,385.40**, of which **$235,317.40** is itemized across fourteen rows — a **$68.00** unitemized residue. The largest is **$182,500.00** in two payments to **The Ullr Group** of Salt Lake City for *fundraising consulting*, followed by **$44,135.00** of legal consulting to a Costa Mesa payee and **$6,770.00** of compliance consulting to a **Hudson, Wisconsin** payee. ## Why it matters **It is the first federal disclosure of who funds Aurora Action Network.** Alaska's state regulator (APOC) disclosed in August that Musk had given the committee $1.5 million; what the state filing could not show is the federal committee's own books. This Form 3X is the first document on the federal record to name the donors, date the money, and show where it went. **The destination is a ballot measure that would repeal the disclosure rule that caught it.** Alaska's 2026 repeal initiative would undo the top-four open primary and ranked-choice general election created by Ballot Measure 2 (2020) — and, bundled with it, the **dark-money disclosure requirement** enacted alongside, which forces entities passing through more than $2,000 a year of donated funds to name their true sources. The vault's [[2026 Ballot Measures Hub]] already records that bundling. A $1.5 million out-of-state contribution routed through a federal super PAC into that campaign is precisely the transaction the disclosure clause exists to surface. **It makes Aurora a conduit, not a spender.** An IE-only committee that files no Schedule E and moves 85.9% of its disbursements out as "donations" is a pass-through. Two of the three destinations are a state ballot-measure committee; the third is a **corporation at its own treasurer's street address**. **It widens the Datwyler record backwards.** [[Thomas Datwyler]]'s page recorded five committees, all registered between 2026-09-21 and 2026-10-05 and all with no money. Aurora Action Network first registered **2025-06-06** — more than a year earlier — and it has **$2.59 million** of cycle receipts. The standing caution on that page still holds: a compliance treasurer is a vendor, not a principal, and nothing here asserts that Datwyler funds or directs any committee he signs for. But the vault's watch item for *a sixth committee from Hudson WI* is now partly answered from the other direction — by **$250,000.00 leaving a Datwyler committee for a corporation at that address**. ## Related money - [[Elon Musk]] — his disclosed 2026-cycle federal political money runs mainly through [[America PAC]]; see [[America PAC 100M Midterm Turnout Program]]. This $1,500,000.00 is separate, is to a committee he does not control on this record, and leaves the federal system. - [[Jeff Yass]] — **$325,000.00** on 2026-07-08, carrying a filing aggregate of **$675,000.00**, which implies roughly **$350,000.00** to this committee in an earlier period not covered by this report. Below $1M as a contribution; recorded here rather than on its own Deal page. - **Press-reported, not yet traced to a filing:** Alaska Public Media reported in August 2026 that Aurora Action Network had also taken money from Dick Uihlein, Timothy Mellon and Hilcorp owner Jeffery Hildebrand. **None of those three appears in file 2019466**, so any amounts would sit in the committee's earlier reports, which have not been reviewed here. No figure is stated for them here. See [[Dick Uihlein]]. ## See Also - [[Aurora Action Network]] · [[Repeal Now]] · [[Make A Diff Inc]] - [[Elon Musk]] · [[Jeff Yass]] · [[Dick Uihlein]] · [[Thomas Datwyler]] · [[SpaceX]] - [[Datwyler Four Super PAC Formation Cluster October 2026]] · [[Red Alaska PAC]] · [[Mobilizing Americans for Real Change and Opportunity PAC]] - [[America PAC]] · [[America PAC 100M Midterm Turnout Program]] - [[Dark Money]] · [[Super PACs]] · [[Independent Expenditure]] · [[Astroturfing]] · [[Voter Suppression]] - [[2026 Ballot Measures Hub]] · [[AK-Sen-2026]] · [[2026 Midterms Hub]] · [[Deals Hub]]