ANCHORAGE, Alaska —Elon Musk has put more than a million dollars behind an effort to roll back Alaska's Top Four open primary system, according to reporting by the Anchorage Daily News. He does not live in Alaska and does not vote there.
Musk, the richest man in the world, funneled $1.5 million into a Wisconsin-based PAC called the Aurora Action Network. That PAC passed $1 million of his money to a campaign called "Repeal Now," the Alaska committee backing a "Yes" vote on Ballot Measure 2, which goes before voters on November 3, 2026.
In 2020, Alaska voters approved a citizens’ initiative allowing for a nonpartisan primary open to all voters and candidates, regardless of party preference. The top four candidates in each race then advance to a general election that uses ranked choice ballots
The new system was first used in 2022 and again in 2024. In 2024, Alaska voters also rejected a repeal attempt by roughly 700 votes out of more than 334,000 cast.
Now, Musk is funding a second effort to repeal that system, which would revert Alaska to closed partisan primaries and traditional pick-one elections. The measure he is supporting would also roll back campaign finance disclosure laws that currently let Alaska voters track when outside donors are spending in state races.
Attorney Scott Kendall, who was part of the reform campaign in 2020, noted that the only reason we know about Musk's spending in Alaska is because of these new disclosure rules. Without them, Musk could inject huge sums of cash into Alaska elections like this without anyone knowing the source.
The irony that @Downing907 won’t acknowledge?
— Scott Kendall (@scooterkendall) August 8, 2026
The *only* reason we know that Musk dropped over $1 million into AK’s elections is because of our law banning Dark Money…
…the very law that Musk donated to help repeal—if successful next time he can donate in secret.#akleg https://t.co/2wfAccMQ5g
The Aurora Action Network's funders also include Dick Uihlein, Jeff Yass, Timothy Mellon, and Hilcorp owner Jeffery Hildebrand, according to the reporting.
Judy Eledge, chair of the repeal campaign, was quoted by the Anchorage Daily News about the megadonor support:
"It's hard to even put into words the gratitude that we feel that these titans of industry would show interest in our small state."
Money is flowing on both sides. The group defending Alaska's current system has raised more than $5 million.
Alaska's measure isn't the only front in the fight over political transparency and campaign spending. In Maine, Equal Citizens and Citizens to End Super PACs fought and won a ballot measure capping super PAC contributions at $5,000.
It was an effort organized three years ago by Harvard law professor and Equal Citizens founder Larry Lessig, whose challenge to the legal underpinning of super PACs is now before the First Circuit Court of Appeals.
Musk launched a short-lived third party, the America Party, in July 2025 amid a public break with President Trump. However, more than a month after the announcement, the party still had no candidates and had taken no formal steps toward getting on a ballot.
One assessment of what it would take for the party to matter asserted that it should run nonpartisan, citizen-led campaigns pressuring states to adopt open primary laws like the ones already used in California and Alaska — the same Alaska primary system Musk is now funding an effort to repeal.
Musk has said he plans to spend $100 million across midterm states this year, and Alaska is just one target of that spending.