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Will Elon Musk influence who wins Pennsylvania? Experts weigh in.


Will Elon Musk influence who wins Pennsylvania? Experts weigh in.

Elon Musk, the world's richest person, has built a massive campaign machine in support of former President Donald Trump, including a multibillion-dollar door-knocking campaign, a social media megaphone and a $1 million sweepstakes for battleground voters.

Despite its far-reaching scope, the operation has a clear focus: Pennsylvania.

In recent weeks, Musk has held town hall meetings across the state, emphasizing his potentially crucial role in the outcome. In between his appearances, he has on the social media platform

“The reason I'm here personally is because Pennsylvania is so important to the future of the world,” Musk told a crowd last month in Folsom, a Philadelphia suburb of about 8,500 people.

But it's unclear whether Musk's splashy, deep-pocketed venture will significantly impact the outcome of the race at a critical juncture, according to campaign finance and electoral politics experts who spoke to ABC News.

Musk began discussing the election just months before Election Day, targeting a state rife with political advertising and campaigning, experts said. While Musk's spending has proven to be immense, the resources to support Vice President Kamala Harris have also been immense, they added.

Still, Musk's late spending surge and appeal among some young male voters could shift support for Trump a bit, and that could prove crucial in the closely contested state, the experts said. The polling average of 538 polls in Pennsylvania shows the state in a dead heat, with Trump clinging to a 0.1 percentage point lead.

Michael Kang, a law professor at Northwestern University who focuses on campaign finance, said Musk's efforts would not have a significant impact but could still be crucial since the state is so close.

“Overall, I don't think this activity has much impact,” Kang told ABC News. “As political scientists, it's easy for us to say that none of this really matters. In this case, it could really make or break the election because we’re talking about a very close race in a single state that could tip the balance.”

Musk frequently posts messages of support for Trump on the social media platform X, where he has more than 202 million followers. At Trump rallies, Musk occasionally appeared on stage to passionately appeal for votes. Government records also show he donated nearly $75 million to support Trump over a three-month period ending in September.

Additionally, Musk recently began giving away $1 million a day to registered voters in battleground states. Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner then sued Musk for allegedly running an illegal lottery.

To enter the drawing, individuals must sign a petition distributed by Musk's America PAC expressing support for the First and Second Amendments. The only people eligible to sign are registered voters in seven key swing states, America PAC's website says.

Musk's lawyers rejected prosecutors' claims of illegality and filed documents to move the case to federal court, but a federal judge sent the case back to state court. The daily lotteries are running.

ABC News contacted Musk's companies Tesla and Space X for comment. He didn't answer immediately. Musk's America PAC also did not respond to a request for comment.

Experts who spoke to ABC News expressed doubts about the effectiveness of the giveaways and said Musk would likely reach highly committed supporters who had already planned to register and vote for Trump.

“It’s such a tight state. You throw everything at the wall and hope it works. But I’m not convinced,” Ray La Raja, a political science professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, told ABC News.

Elon Musk accompanies former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at a campaign event at the site of his first assassination attempt on October 5, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

However, the controversial giveaway and nationwide popular outrage have raised eyebrows, which could help motivate Musk fans to vote in the election, the experts said. Instead of converting new Trump supporters, Musk could help bring some voters to the polls, particularly young men, who make up a particularly difficult voter bloc to get to the ballot box, they added.

With that in mind, Musk has funded a campaign touting his own support for Trump, Robin Kolodny, a political science professor at Temple University in Philadelphia, told ABC News.

“You have to think about Elon Musk the same way you think about Taylor Swift,” Kolodny said. Swift, who endorsed Harris in September, triggered more than 400,000 visits to the voter registration website Vote.gov in 24 hours, The New York Times reported.

In his town hall events and social media posts, Musk has also spread misleading claims that cast doubt on the legitimacy of the election. When Musk spoke in Philadelphia last month, he baselessly accused Democrats of sending undocumented immigrants to the state to cast illegal ballots. Voting by non-citizens is illegal and exceedingly rare. Recent audits of voter rolls in states such as Georgia, Ohio and Iowa have uncovered instances of non-citizen voting that, overall, represented only a tiny fraction of the states' total number of registered voters.

In a post on The claim deviates sharply from the poll average of 538, suggesting a neck-and-neck race.

“It seems like part of the strategy is to antagonize their supporters and prepare them for something fraudulent to happen if the election doesn't go their way,” Kang said.

However, Musk's strategy poses risks for Trump, experts say. Intervention by the world's richest person could turn off some voters who feel the campaign is out of touch with the concerns of everyday people, said Peter Brusoe, a professor of political science and economics at the State University of New York in Delhi ABC News.

“In a swing state like Pennsylvania, it could actually do more harm than good,” Brusoe said. “How does Elon Musk arrive in the suburbs of Pittsburgh? Do you see him as a person you can relate to?”

In a conference call last month, Musk said Trump's economic plans could cause financial problems. Spending cuts through a new “government efficiency commission” would “necessarily involve temporary hardship,” Musk said. The comments sparked criticism from Democrats.

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In response to ABC News' request for comment, the Harris campaign pointed to its recent door-knocking campaign in Pennsylvania. On Saturday, the campaign said it knocked on 807,000 doors in the state.

While Musk's campaign could influence the outcome in Pennsylvania, it is ultimately impossible to determine the exact impact in the fog of a hectic campaign season, the experts said.

“There is absolutely no way to know,” Kolodny said, noting the difficulty of isolating Musk’s influence amid a host of other variables. But the outcome of the election could influence the way observers look back on Musk's campaign.

“We’ll find out,” Kolodny said.

ABC News' Peter Charalambous contributed to this report.

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