# America PAC Timeline The chronology of [[Elon Musk]]'s super PAC, [[America PAC]], from its formation to the 2026 midterms. The detail lives on the linked pages; this page is the spine. Read top to bottom, it shows one method used three times (2024, 2025, 2026): pay for access to voters through a petition or a "civic" tool, keep the data, and when challenged in court, recharacterize the payments. ## Phase 1 — Build-out (2024) | Date | Event | Significance | |---|---|---| | 2024 (formation; Wikipedia gives July 2024) | America PAC formed as Musk's pro-Trump super PAC; after July leadership changes it is run day to day by Phil Cox, Generra Peck and Dave Rexrode | A single-donor vehicle; Musk supplies about 91% of declared contributions through 2024 | | Summer–fall 2024 | America PAC takes over the Trump campaign's swing-state door-knocking, farming states out to contractors: [[Blitz Canvassing]] (AZ, NC, MI, NV), Patriot Grassroots (GA, PA), The Synapse Group (WI) | A party function privatized; see [[America PAC]] | | Sept 2024 | September Group's Arizona and Nevada canvassing contracts cancelled | Early turbulence in the field program | | Through Sept 2024 | Musk has given about $75 million | | | By Oct 16, 2024 | Musk has given more than $118 million | | ## Phase 2 — The petition and the prizes (October 2024) | Date | Event | Significance | |---|---|---| | Oct 6, 2024 | **$47 per referral** for each registered voter in PA, GA, NV, AZ, MI, WI or NC who signs the First/Second Amendment petition; paid to the *referrer*; deadline Oct 21 | Payment tied to registered status; every signature yields name, address and phone. See [[America PAC $1 Million Petition Sweepstakes]] | | Oct 17, 2024 | **Pennsylvania only: $100 to the signer and $100 to the referrer** | The one state where signers themselves are paid, days before registration closes | | Oct 19, 2024 | Harrisburg, PA town hall: Musk announces **$1 million a day** to a swing-state signer until Election Day, calls it random, and hands over the first check on stage | Documented as a social-post artifact: [[Elon Musk - 2024-10-19 - one million dollar giveaway]] | | Oct 21, 2024 | Petition deadline; Pennsylvania voter-registration deadline | | | Oct 22, 2024 | The *Philadelphia Inquirer* reports that three Pennsylvania $1M recipients had already voted | | | Oct 23, 2024 | **Justice Department warning letter**: the payments may violate federal law against paying people to register or vote (52 U.S.C. § 10307(c)) | Federal warning; no injunction sought | | Oct 28, 2024 | Philadelphia DA [[Larry Krasner]] sues Musk and America PAC to stop an "illegal lottery" | | | Oct 30, 2024 | America PAC says it has mailed 87,000+ referral checks, with 100,000 more planned; 11 $1M winners so far | | | Oct 31, 2024 | **WIRED:** Blitz Canvassing crews in Michigan say they were not told they would work for Trump, rode in seatless U-Hauls, and faced a 1,000-doors-a-week quota or losing their hotels; the canvassing app flagged fake knocks | See [[America PAC Canvassing Scandal]] | | Nov 3, 2024 | **WIRED:** an all-Black crew of about a dozen is fired after the story, over a complaint that someone spoke to the press; many unpaid, some stranded in Michigan | | | Nov 4, 2024 | Philadelphia hearing: PAC lawyer Chris Gober says "we know exactly who will be announced as the $1 million recipient"; director Chris Young testifies winners "were not chosen by random chance." Judge Angelo Foglietta lets the giveaway continue | The "not random" admission defeats the lottery claim, and becomes the basis of later fraud suits | | Nov 5, 2024 | Election Day; [[Donald Trump]] wins every swing state. 18 $1M "spokespeople" named in all | See [[2024 Presidential Election]] | ## Phase 3 — Reckoning and a sequel (Nov 2024 – 2025) | Date | Event | Significance | |---|---|---| | Nov 2024 | Arizona voter Jacqueline McAferty files a proposed class action in federal court in Austin: fraud, breach of contract, and a demand that the collected data be destroyed | [[McAferty v. Musk]] | | Nov 26, 2024 | Krasner withdraws the Philadelphia suit without prejudice | | | Nov 25 – Dec 31, 2024 | Post-general filing puts Musk at ~$238.5M (the widely quoted "$239 million"); the year-end report adds an $11.2M in-kind attribution, bringing his 2024 total to **$249.75M**: $197.7M cash plus ~$52.1M in-kind via [[United States of America Inc]] | FEC Schedule A, checked 2026-10-04. The largest single-donor political investment of the 2024 cycle. The PAC spent $261.3M in the cycle | | Jan 20, 2025 | Musk begins running [[DOGE]] in the second Trump administration | | | Mar 28–30, 2025 | **Wisconsin sequel.** $100 petition "in opposition to activist judges"; Musk promises two personal $1M checks. AG [[Josh Kaul]] sues; courts decline to intervene; Musk hands out checks in Green Bay on March 30 | See [[2025 Wisconsin Supreme Court Election]] | | Apr 1, 2025 | Liberal Susan Crawford beats Musk-backed Brad Schimel by 10.1 points in a $100M+ race; Musk-affiliated spending exceeds $25 million | First electoral rebuke of Musk's political money | | Apr 2, 2025 | Anonymous Philadelphia-area canvasser sues Musk, America PAC and Group America LLC in E.D. Pa. over unpaid referral fees (class estimate $5M+) | | | May 2025 | Musk leaves DOGE; a second class action (three swing-state voters, Liss-Riordan firm) sues over unpaid petition payments | | | Aug 20, 2025 | Judge Robert Pitman lets McAferty's fraud and contract claims proceed: "randomly" means "lacking a definite plan, purpose, or pattern" | | ## Phase 4 — Enforcement fades, operation scales (2026) | Date | Event | Significance | |---|---|---| | Mar 2026 | $1.6M in disclosed Musk contributions | See [[Musk March 2026 America PAC Contribution]] | | Jan–Jun 2026 | About $47.3M spent, including the April 2026 Wisconsin Supreme Court race and Florida House specials | Off-year activity continues | | June 2026 | Magistrate Judge Susan Hightower orders Musk to testify under oath in the McAferty and Harvick cases, and recommends narrowing McAferty to fraud | Musk's own word "randomly" is now his personal exposure | | July 10, 2026 | [[Wisconsin Elections Commission]] votes 5–1: probable cause Musk broke the election-bribery law; referral to the Brown County DA | | | Late July 2026 | Reported midterm commitment of **$100–120 million** across about eight states | See [[America PAC 100M Midterm Turnout Program]] | | Aug 25, 2026 | Special prosecutor Tim Gruenke declines to charge Musk: "a poorly worded statement that was corrected" | Every enforcement track against the 2024–25 cash offers has now closed without a penalty | | Early Sept 2026 | America PAC ads push swing-state voters to **votesafe.org** instead of vote.gov; [[Judd Legum]] (Sept 8) shows it collects and can resell voter data | The petition's data-collection logic, now permanent; see [[America PAC]] | | Sept 2026 | First midterm disclosure: about $800,000 in August spending, largely in Maine and Texas | | ## Patterns 1. **Access in exchange for payment, framed as civic participation.** A pro-Constitution petition in 2024, a petition "against activist judges" in 2025, and a registration-status checker in 2026. Each was a public-spirited front end on a voter-data pipeline. 2. **Legal risk handled by relabeling.** A prize described publicly as random became paid "spokesperson" roles in court. A post thanking voters "for taking the time to vote" became a petition reward within hours. Each relabeling defeated the enforcement action it faced, and each is now evidence in a civil fraud case. 3. **Enforcement ran out.** A federal warning letter, a DA's lawsuit, a state AG's emergency motion and a bipartisan commission's probable-cause finding produced no injunction and no charge. The remaining exposure is private: class actions by the voters and canvassers the program used. 4. **The labor model matches Musk's companies.** Per-door pay, quotas, firings for talking to the press, and payment disputes afterward. Compare [[Musk Companies Labor Litigation]]. ## See Also - [[America PAC]] · [[Elon Musk]] · [[Blitz Canvassing]] - [[America PAC $1 Million Petition Sweepstakes]] · [[America PAC Canvassing Scandal]] · [[McAferty v. Musk]] - [[2024 Presidential Election]] · [[2025 Wisconsin Supreme Court Election]] - [[Campaign Finance Timeline]] · [[Dark Money Timeline]] · [[DOGE and Government Dismantling Timeline]] - [[Timelines Hub]]