Tech mogul and White House adviser Elon Musk has donated $6,600 to Buddy Carter’s campaign committee, an apparent boost the Coastal Georgia congressman’s political profile ahead of a possible run for the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Jon Ossoff.
“Thank you, Elon Musk! Together, we will #MakeAmericaGreatAgain!” gushed Carter in announcing the donation Wednesday on his Facebook page and the social media site X, which Musk owns.
Musk’s donation to Carter is a pittance compared to the pair of million-dollar checks that the head of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, handed out to two Wisconsin voters over the weekend, as he tries to help conservatives take over that state’s supreme court in an election this week.
It is also peanuts compared with the more than $291 million that Musk, who also owns the electric vehicle company Tesla and SpaceX, donated to Republican candidates, political action committees and other outside spending organizations in the 2024 election cycle.
Still, the $6,600 donation to Carter indicates the extent to which Musk, the world’s wealthiest person, will go to advance conservative causes across the nation and in the view of his critics, perhaps his personal financial ones, too.
For Carter’s part, his public praise for Musk indicates how he’s angling to keep the attention of the Trump White House as he ponders future political moves.
The former Pooler mayor, who now lives in St. Simons, said last week that he expects Gov. Brian Kemp to announce his own future political plans after the Georgia General Assembly adjourns later this week. “When he makes a decision, I’ll make a decision,” Carter told CNN, referring to the Senate race in 2026.
As of Dec. 31, Carter’s campaign committee had more than $3.01 million in cash on hand, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission. The committee, Buddy Carter for Congress, is one of Carter’s three fundraising groups.
Meanwhile, Ossoff’s campaign committee ended 2024 with $4.99 million in cash on hand, his FEC submission said.
‘We’re the ones in Congress who have to codify it’
In Carter, Musk has an ally in his campaign to slash federal programs and the federal workforce.
The 67-year-old lawmaker belongs to the House Delivering Outstanding Government Efficiency (DOGE) Caucus, which was launched after the November election.
Its purpose, according to its co-chairman, Florida Republican Aaron Bean, is to “work closely” with Musk’s team to “help rein in reckless spending and stop the abuse of taxpayer dollars.” To date, the nature of that work is unclear, though they continue to champion Musk’s work.
The caucus, all but one of whose 31 members are Republican, is not a part of DOGE nor is it an official congressional committee. It could not immediately be determined whether the caucus’ GOP members and their campaign committees also received $6,600 donations from Musk.
Though the nature of the involvement with Musk’s team is unclear, Carter and its other GOP members of the caucus have been evangelists for his efforts.
During a congressional recess earlier this month, Carter, now in his sixth term representing Coastal Georgia in the U.S. Congress, staged what he billed as a “End Waste, Fraud & Abuse Radio Tour,” discussing DOGE with radio hosts in Brunswick, Jesup, and Gainesville, even as he has resisted calls to hold in-person, town halls.
He told Bob Morgan of “The Butch & Bob Show” on WIFO-FM in Jesup that Musk and his team are using “21st century technology” to “really dig down deep” in government spending and to “find out exactly what’s going on.”
While DOGE is charged with finding the problems, Carter said: “We’re the ones in Congress who have to codify it and have to if it’s going to get fixed. We’re the ones who have to add it, add the rules and the regulations and the legislation in order to fix it.”
Musk has made unverified claims about Social Security, including calling the program the “biggest Ponzi scheme all time.” That apparent attempt to discredit so-called entitlement programs in preparation for making deep cuts into them has sparked fears among some Coastal Georgians that DOGE is targeting both Social Security and Medicare. Carter, however, assured listeners that neither would be “touched.”
As for concerns that Musk and his team may be violating the privacy of American citizens by accessing sensitive personal information, Carter assured Morgan: “They don’t have access to personal information.”