Will Elon Musk punish California Republicans for their Big, Beautiful bill vote?
Elon Musk warned anyone who voted for the Big, Beautiful Bill that, “in November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people.”
Does that mean the nine California Republicans, all of whom voted last month for the tax and spending bill, could face his political wrath?
Musk’s America Political Action Committee, which spent about $173 million on 2024 elections, tried to help three California Republicans.
The committee spent nearly $1 million trying to re-elect Rep. David Valadao, R-Hanford.
Most House Republicans continue to back the Big, Beautiful bill, which extends expiring income tax rates beyond 2025 but also makes big cuts in Medicaid, food assistance and other government programs.
“House Republicans are united and focused on delivering for the American people and on President Trump’s mandate,” Christian Martinez, spokesman for the National Republican Campaign Committee told The Bee.
“That means preventing the largest tax hike in generations, securing the border, ensuring Americans have access to services they need, and stopping the handouts to illegals,” he said.
Valadao did not respond to a request for comment by deadline. He has praised the Trump administration for trying to streamline government services, but there’s been no evidence he’s dealt with Musk.
Will Musk’s criticisms matter?
Democrats see a huge political opening.
“Tough break for Valadao when even big donor Elon Musk agrees he took a sledgehammer to the national deficit and sold out working families in the process. It’s high time for Californians to fire him,” said Anna Elsasser, spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
President Donald Trump, though, continues to back the bill, and that is likely to be more important than Musk’s disdain, said Erin Covey, House analyst for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.
“We’ll see if Musk puts his money where his mouth is next year and creates primary problems for Republicans in competitive districts,” she said, though doing so could force the incumbents to move to the right and jeopardize their general election chances.
Ultimately, Covey said, “Musk has far less sway with Republican voters than Trump does, so as long as Trump is behind Republican members they shouldn’t have any trouble winning their primaries.”
Musk, a Trump megadonor and for months Trump’s ally and leader of the effort to slash federal government spending, has roiled Washington this week with his anger over the Big, Beautiful bill.
The measure passed the House by one vote, and looks headed for big changes in the Senate.
Trump responds to Musk
Trump responded to Musk Thursday, saying he was “very disappointed in Elon.” The president said Musk “knew the inner workings of this bill better than almost anybody sitting here. He had no problem with it.”
Thursday afternoon, Musk fired back on X: “False, this bill was never shown to me even once and was passed in the dead of night so fast that almost no one in Congress could even read it!”
Musk’s concern is the projected increase in federal debt. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated this week that the bill would spike deficits by $2.4 trillion over the next 10 years.
Musk was appalled. He said on X the bill was “a disgusting abomination.”
“Shame on those who voted for it,” he said. “You know you did wrong.”
Republicans still like the bill
Most Republicans disagree with Musk.
“I look at the bill, I read the bill, I make my decisions. People are going to have different opinions about it, and that’s fine,” said Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Roseville.
Kiley easily won re-election in 2024. So did Reps. Tom McClintock, R-Elk Grove, and Doug LaMalfa, R-Chico.
Valadao is regarded as one of the nation’s most vulnerable Republicans.
He first won his Central Valley seat in 2012, then lost in 2018 when Democrats swept House seats across the country during Trump’s first term. Valadao won back the seat in 2020.
He was one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump four years ago for the president’s involvement in the January 6 Capitol insurrection.
In recent years, though, Valadao has been loyal to Trump, and this year has praised the Trump and Musk cost-cutting initiatives.
He’s had a particularly taut tightrope to walk on Medicaid, called Medi-Cal in California. The health care program mostly for lower income people has been slated for hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts over the next 10 years.
That could be particularly difficult for his district, where about two-thirds of the population uses the program.
Valadao has joined other Republicans in urging strong support for the program. In one letter to congressional leaders, he wrote, any reductions “must not come at the expense of those who depend on these benefits for their health and economic security.”
Musk’s America is a super PAC that spent about $173 million during last year’s election cycle on independent expenditures.
That meant it could provide unlimited amounts of money to help elect or defeat candidates. Among its expenditures were $143.8 million to help elect Trump last year, according to figures from OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan research firm.
Musk’s super PAC tried to aid three California Republicans, Valadao and Reps. Ken Calvert, R-Corona, and Michelle Steel, R-Seal Beach. Calvert won and Steel lost.
Valadao won his race over Democrat Rudy Salas by 7 percentage points in a district that includes most of Kings County and sections of Tulare and Kern counties. Valadao’s campaign was not permitted to coordinate with the Musk super PAC.
This story was originally published June 5, 2025 at 12:05 PM with the headline "Will Elon Musk punish California Republicans for their Big, Beautiful bill vote?."
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