Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland last year. (Photo: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
The world’s richest man is officially investing in the 2026 Ohio governor’s race.
Elon Musk, a former billionaire AND former co-leader of the unofficial Department of Government Effectiveness (DOGE), along with current Republican nominee Ohio Gov. Vivek Ramaswamy, contributed $5 million to a Ramaswamy-supporting super PAC in May, according to campaign finance reports released last week.
Musk joined billionaires Jeffrey Yass, Ratmir Timashev, Bill Ackman and Ross Stevens as major supporters of V-PAC: Victors, Not Victims, a super PAC dedicated to supporting Ramaswamy’s election candidacy.
To date, billionaires have contributed a total of $37 million to V-PAC, representing more than 88% of its total funding. About 98%. V-PAC contribution for the second quarterthat is, $12 million came from Musk, Timashev, Ackman and Stevens.
“I don’t think it’s surprising that billionaires support other billionaires running for office,” said Catherine Turcer, executive director of the watchdog group Common Cause Ohio.
A super PAC can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money, but cannot directly coordinate with a candidate’s campaign committee. Individuals can donate a maximum of $7,000 each election cycle to a candidate’s campaign committee, which has more restrictions on what it can do.
While super PACs often support their preferred candidates, Case Western Reserve University law professor Atiba Ellis emphasized that they pursue their own agendas.
“Such a large amount of money could drown out dialogue on issues related to the gubernatorial run,” he said.
In any case, he added, voters should expect even more political ads in what will be one of the most steep gubernatorial elections in state history.
The Democratic nominee for governor in 2026, Dr. Amy Acton, is slightly ahead of Ramaswamy, at least according to the latest documents filed by their campaign committee. But without super PAC support — or $25 million of her own money to enter the race like her opponent did “Ramaswamy has a gigantic money advantage.
Acton promises to reform Ohio’s campaign finance system to make it more clear if elected, in line with her campaign platform.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for Acton’s campaign committee said in a statement that the billionaires’ donations are just further evidence that “Ramaswamy’s fraud policies will enrich himself and other billionaires while raising costs for Ohio’s working families.”
V-PAC and Ramaswamy’s campaign committee did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
“Ohio is not for sale,” Acton wrote on social media in response to Musk’s donation. “Not now. Never.”
Shortly after the billionaire donations, V-PAC bought a series of advertising spots, spending more than $8.1 million in June on 30-second ad against Acton. At the end of the second quarter, the super PAC had a cash balance of $25.8 million.
Musk, Yass and Ackman are no strangers to political lobbying. Musk spent more than $250 million to support President Donald Trump in 2024. He was also extremely dynamic during the 2025 Wisconsin Supreme Court election and appeared to hand out $1 million checks to two Wisconsin voters.
Bipartisan panel in Wisconsin later found that these audits likely violated state election law.
His donation to the Ohio race has not been flagged as problematic in any way.
“While this gift may be unthinkable, voters should ask what his motives are in influencing this election,” Ellis said.
Yass, Pennsylvania’s richest man, donated $20 million to V-PAC ahead of the primary election. Yass, co-founder of the investment firm Susquehanna International Group, which has an estimated net worth of $65.7 billion, has pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into politics to raise support for private school vouchers.
Ackman, a hedge fund investor, donated $1 million to V-PAC in June. Was one of the most vocal opponents against the election campaign of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and gave to a super PAC $1.75 million oppose him.
Compared to this, Timashev is a newcomer to the political scene. He never made any political contributions in Ohio or at the federal level until the second quarter of 2026, when he donated $5 million to V-PAC in May.
The tech entrepreneur left Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union to attend Ohio State University, eventually accumulating most of his wealth through information technology company Veeam Solutions.
In 2023, Timashev made the largest single donation in Ohio State history, providing $110 million to establish the university’s Software Innovation Center. He said he plans to bring 100 artificial intelligence startups to Columbus through his own venture capital firm, turning Ohio’s capital into “the next Silicon Valley.”
But in April, three former directors defendant Timashev and a venture capital firm on fraud and civil conspiracy charges. They later filed another lawsuit, alleging that the company’s public statements about their firing – including: Post on LinkedIn the announcement that Senator Jon Husted’s son, Alex Husted, would take their place – was defamatory.
Management claims he hired them from their previous companies with promises of $50 million in financing that never came, and when they complained, he fired them. Tymaszew he objected in federal court, accusing three executives of embezzling $8 million and stealing trade secrets.
Like Timashev, Stevens is best known for his donations to his alma mater. After graduating from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania in 1991, he became founder and CEO of Stone Ridge Holdings Group, a Wall Street asset management firm.
In 2019, he became a founding donor of the Stevens Center for Innovation in Finance at Wharton. But four years later he was obtained $100 million in financing from the university on how then-President Penna dealt with anti-Semitism on campus. A few days later, she resigned.
In early 2025, Stevens contributed $5 million to the V-PAC, the most he has given to a single federally registered PAC, and added another $1 million in May.
Because super PACs can’t coordinate with candidates, they can employ their outsized platform to steer elections in unintended directions, Ellis said. Super PACs can raise issues that their preferred candidates may want to avoid, putting pressure on candidates to address them.
Ramaswamy left DOGE in January 2025 after his relationship with Musk and President Donald Trump reportedly deepened tight.
“While it is unlikely that a supporting PAC would attempt to steer a candidate’s agenda, it is certainly possible,” Ellis said.
When wealthy donors make vast political contributions to a single-candidate super PAC such as a V-PAC, Turcer said there is “always a concern” that they will influence policymaking.
“It feels like you’re dancing with the one who brought you,” she said.
