Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump seems to be getting a big assist from the world’s richest person in the crucial last few days of the 2024 campaign. Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk is on track to pour more than $130 million into Trump’s campaign effort, and he’s even running a ground operation in Pennsylvania to lure late-breaking swing voters to Trump’s side.
It could backfire. Yahoo Finance surveyed more than 4,000 of our regular users and found that Musk’s involvement with Trump’s campaign could have the opposite of the intended effect.
We asked respondents if Musk’s newfound alliance with Trump would make people more or less likely to vote for the former president. Among all respondents, 25% said it would make them more likely to vote for Trump, while 28% said it would make them less likely. That’s a net loss for Trump of 3 percentage points. Forty-six percent said it wouldn’t affect their voting choice either way.
Among people saying they remain undecided, 21% said Musk’s involvement would make them more likely to vote for Trump, while 28% said less likely. That’s a 7-point deficit among the types of voters likely to make the difference in a race that’s so tight analysts consider it a coin toss.
This is not a randomized survey, and the Yahoo Finance audience tends to be wealthier, more educated, and older than the electorate overall. But our survey is a large and useful focus group of investors — including some Tesla shareholders — who follow the mercurial Musk closer than others and are likely familiar with his pathbreaking roles at Tesla and other companies, including SpaceX and the social media app X, formerly known as Twitter.
Other surveys find similar results. The Democratic polling group Blueprint recently asked men aged 18 to 29 what they think on a variety of issues. When asked about Elon Musk’s endorsement of Trump, 24% said it would make them more likely to vote for Trump and 28% said less likely. Independents, who overlap with swing voters, were slightly more negative toward Musk, with 18% saying his support for Trump makes them more likely to vote for the Republican nominee, and 27% saying less likely.
It’s not that people. like our Yahoo Finance readers, dislike Musk. In our survey, 45% said he’s a benefit to society, while only 23% said he’s a detriment to society. But 28% agreed that Musk is a visionary entrepreneur who has gotten too rich and powerful.
Musk helps run at least six companies, and he’s become an outspoken critic of government overreach, “censorship” meant to block offensive online rhetoric, and social-inclusion policies he derides as “wokeness.” On X, Musk frequently reposts conspiracy theories. He’s become phone pals with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. Conservative commentator William Kristol of the Bulwark calls Musk an “oligarch” trying to gain control of the Republican party and, if Trump wins, the whole US government.
