Musk's Empire Braces for Democratic Crackdown After Texas Flop

**Headline:** Musk's Empire Braces for Democratic Crackdown After Texas Flop

Elon Musk's political safe haven just turned hostile. Democrats swept Texas' Senate seat, the governorship and the attorney general's office, torching the $160 million he wagered on Ken Paxton — his most humiliating defeat yet, per Axios. Musk had moved his home and the headquarters of Tesla, SpaceX and X to the state, betting on a sanctuary for his growing empire. Now that same ground looks like a regulatory minefield.

On Capitol Hill, Democrats hold subpoena power and intend to use it. They're preparing to investigate Musk's DOGE operation, how it tapped sensitive government data, and whether his companies cashed in on his extraordinary influence over the Trump administration.

Investors already flinched. Tesla and SpaceX shed a combined $460 billion in market value in the two days after the election, then rebounded Friday as Wall Street raced to reprice the risks facing Musk's businesses.

The midterms also handed the anti-AI backlash real political muscle, putting the giant data centers fueling Musk's ambitions — and the technology behind Grok itself — squarely in the frame.

That leaves Democrats with a knot to untangle: separating Musk the political combatant from Musk the industrialist. His companies sit at the center of America's technological and military power.