By Siddaerh Sivaraman
Ohio Capital Journal
COLUMBUS — Elon Musk, a former trillionaire and former co-leader of the unofficial Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with now-Republican nominee for Ohio governor Vivek Ramaswamy, donated $5 million to a super PAC backing Ramaswamy in May, according to campaign finance reports released last week.
Musk joined billionaires Jeffrey Yass, Ratmir Timashev, Bill Ackman, and Ross Stevens as the primary backers of V-PAC: Victors, Not Victims, a super PAC dedicated to supporting Ramaswamy’s election bid.
The billionaires have given V-PAC a combined $37 million so far, more than 88% of its total funding. About 98% of V-PAC’s second-quarter contributions, or $12 million, came from Musk, Timashev, Ackman, and Stevens.
“I do not think it’s surprising that billionaires support other billionaires running for office,” said Catherine Turcer, executive director of watchdog group Common Cause Ohio.
A super PAC can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money, but it cannot directly coordinate with a candidate’s campaign committee. Individuals can only contribute up to $7,000 per election cycle to a candidate’s campaign committee, which has more restrictions on what it can do.
While super PACs often throw their full weight behind their preferred candidates, Case Western Reserve University law professor Atiba Ellis emphasized that they carry their own agendas.
“This outsized amount of money can drown out what could be a dialogue about the issues in the governor’s race,” he said.
In any case, he added that voters should expect even more political advertising in what is set to be one of the most expensive governor’s elections in state history.
Democratic nominee for governor Dr. Amy Acton is narrowly outraising Ramaswamy in 2026, at least according to their most recent campaign committee filings. But without a super PAC backing her — or $25 million of her own money to put in the race as her opponent did — Ramaswamy holds a large cash advantage.
Acton promises to reform Ohio’s campaign finance system to make it more transparent if elected, according to her campaign platform.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Acton’s campaign committee said in a statement that the billionaires’ donations were only more evidence that Ramaswamy’s “scam policies would enrich himself and his fellow billionaires while raising costs for Ohio’s working families.”
V-PAC and Ramaswamy’s campaign committee did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
“Ohio isn’t for sale,” Acton wrote on social media in response to Musk’s donation. “Not now. Not ever.”
V-PAC bought a round of ad placements shortly after the billionaires’ donations, spending over $8.1 million in June on a 30-second ad against Acton. The super PAC reported $25.8 million in cash balance at the end of the second quarter.
Musk, Yass, and Ackman are no strangers to political lobbying. Musk spent over $250 million to support President Donald Trump in 2024. He was also extremely active in the 2025 Wisconsin state Supreme Court election, even appearing to hand out $1 million checks to two Wisconsin voters.
A bipartisan panel in Wisconsin later found that those checks likely violated state election law.
His donation in the Ohio race has not been flagged as problematic in any way.
“Even though this gift may be above board, voters should inquire about what his motives are in terms of influencing this election,” Ellis said.
Yass, the richest man in Pennsylvania, gave V-PAC $20 million before the primary. A co-founder of investment company Susquehanna International Group with an estimated net worth of $65.7 billion, Yass has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into politics to advance support for private school vouchers.
Ackman, a hedge fund investor, donated $1 million to V-PAC in June. He was one of the most vocal opponents against New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s electoral campaign and gave super PACs $1.75 million to oppose him.
Timashev is a newcomer to the political scene in comparison. He had never made a political contribution in Ohio or at the federal level until the second quarter of 2026, when he gave V-PAC $5 million in May.
The tech entrepreneur left Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union to study at The Ohio State University, eventually amassing most of his wealth through informational technology company Veeam Solutions.
Timashev made Ohio State’s largest single donation ever in 2023, giving $110 million to create the university’s Center for Software Innovation. He has said he aims to bring 100 artificial intelligence startups to Columbus through his own venture capital firm, turning Ohio’s capital into “the next Silicon Valley.”
But in April, three former executives sued Timashev and the venture capital firm on allegations of fraud and civil conspiracy. They later filed another lawsuit claiming that public statements by the firm about their firing — including a LinkedIn post announcing that Sen. Jon Husted’s son, Alex Husted, would take their place — were defamatory.
The executives claim he hired them away from their previous companies with promises of $50 million in funding that never came, and when they complained, he fired them. Timashev countersued in federal court, alleging that the three executives misappropriated $8 million and stole trade secrets.
Like Timashev, Stevens is best known for donating to his alma mater. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business in 1991, he became the founder and CEO of Stone Ridge Holdings Group, a Wall Street asset management company.
In 2019, he became the founding donor of Wharton’s Stevens Center for Innovation in Finance. But four years later, he pulled $100 million in funding from the university over how Penn’s then-president handled antisemitism on campus. She resigned days later.
Stevens gave $5 million to V-PAC in early 2025, the most he has given to a single PAC registered at the federal level, and added another $1 million in May.
Because super PACs cannot coordinate with candidates, they can use their outsized platform to steer elections in unintended directions, Ellis said. Super PACs can raise issues that their preferred candidates may want to avoid, putting pressure on candidates to address them.
Ramaswamy left DOGE in January 2025 after his relationship with Musk and President Donald Trump reportedly grew tense.
“Even though it’s unlikely that a supportive PAC is going to try to steer the agenda of a candidate, it’s certainly possible,” Ellis said.
When wealthy donors make large political contributions to a single-candidate super PAC like V-PAC, Turcer said there is “always a worry” that they will influence policymaking.
“There’s a sense that you dance with the one who brung you,” she said.