The handful of Americans who have won $1 million checks from tech billionaire Elon Musk’s super PAC have a few things in common.
Per the giveaway’s stated rules, they are all registered voters, according to public records. They all live in presidential battleground states, according to the same records. And presumably they have all signed Musk’s petition “in Favor of Free Speech and the Right to Bear Arms” — a requirement to win the lottery-style contest, although their signatures on the petition aren’t public.
And an analysis of the winners shows at least one other similarity: Almost all of them are registered Republicans or appear to be Republican-leaning.
Nine of the 14 winners so far are registered Republicans, according to state voter rolls. A 10th winner lives in a state that doesn’t allow the public to view party affiliation, but she posts regularly on social media in support of former President Donald Trump. And four others reside in states where voters don’t register to vote with a party affiliation, but one of them posts pro-Trump messages on social media and another describes himself in a video from Musk’s America PAC as a former Democrat. Another of those four said in an interview that he supports Trump and has already voted.
Musk has said that party affiliation doesn’t affect who wins.
“All you need to do is sign the @America petition in support of the Constitutional rights to free speech & bear arms to have a daily chance of winning $1,000,000!” Musk said Oct. 20 in a post on X.
“You can be from any or no political party and you don’t even have to vote,” he said.
None of the 14 winners, though, appears to be a registered Democrat or visible supporter of Vice President Kamala Harris.
The winners list appears to give insight into who has been signing Musk’s petition, which has faced criticism for having the appearance of offering payment in exchange for Republican-leaning voter registration. Federal law bars paying people to register to vote.
It’s possible that no registered Democrats have won the giveaway because few of them have entered compared to the number of Republicans entering. Musk has promoted the contest to his followers on X, which has a conservative slant, and through other channels where it’s likely to be seen by Republicans. Plus, Democrats who have seen Musk’s petition may not want to sign it, even if it comes with a chance at winning the prize, either because it endorses “the right to bear arms” or for some other reason.
Additionally, the super PAC has faced an accusation from Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner that its contest appears not to be random, as Musk has advertised it.
Musk said Oct. 19 when he announced the giveaway that his America PAC would choose $1 million winners “randomly” each day through Nov. 5. He has also said that the contest pool is open to any registered voter regardless of party who lives in one of seven swing states and agrees to sign his petition.
Krasner, who’s suing Musk and America PAC over what he calls an illegal lottery, has alleged that the selection of winners appears not to be random. In his lawsuit, he noted that the first two winners, Oct. 19 and Oct. 20, were present with Musk at rallies when their names were announced.
“Both just happened to live near the locations of Musk’s pro-Trump rallies and both were in attendance at those rallies,” the lawsuit says.
Those winners appeared to be surprised when they came to the stage to be handed an oversized check. NBC News contacted all the winners, and all but one declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment.
Ron Conwell of Michigan, the 14th winner, said in a phone interview Friday that he found out he won when American PAC came to his home Thursday and delivered an oversized check just as he was getting ready to hand out Halloween candy. He said he didn’t know the process the super PAC used to pick his name and didn’t ask.
Told that no registered Democrats had won the contest, Conwell said that didn’t surprise him. He said he believes Democrats are not ideologically predisposed to sign Musk’s petition in support of the First and Second Amendments.
“If you’re following your ideology and you’re an informed voter and you say that you’re a Democrat, you’re most likely not a supporter of the Constitution,” he said.
Conwell, a teacher of computer science, said he’s already cast his ballot for Trump.
“When it comes to party affiliation, I don’t think there’s a possibility that you can disaggregate American from Republican,” he said. “If you can’t see that the Republican Party is doing all it can to make sure that this country thrives, I just think that you’re uninformed.”
How Musk’s super PAC chooses the winners — the exact process — has been a mystery for weeks. NBC News asked the super PAC to share the process Oct. 22 and did not receive a response. On Thursday, a spokesperson for the super PAC declined to comment on the process. Asked if he wanted to offer a response to Krasner’s allegation that it appears not to be random, or a comment on the partisan makeup of the winners, the spokesperson again declined.
The word “random” does not appear on America PAC’s website for the contest or in any of the organization’s posts on X, although Musk did describe it that way when he announced the giveaway. On Friday, the super PAC’s pinned post on X said that winners are “selected to earn $1M as a spokesperson for America PAC.”
Krasner’s lawsuit added that “if their scheme actually did not involve a chance or random selection of winners,” then they “would be admitting to acting deceptively and in violation of the Commonwealth’s consumer protection law.”
The suit also alleges that Musk’s super PAC is leaving some parts of the contest unspoken: “They have not published a complete set of lottery rules,” the suit says.
Krasner’s lawsuit is pending in state court in Philadelphia.
Musk, the world’s richest person, has been one of Trump’s most energetic supporters during the final stretch of this year’s presidential campaign. His super PAC has spent more than $140 million to support the Republican nominee, and Musk has made several in-person appearances across Pennsylvania to try to drive turnout for Trump. While it won’t be clear how much of that super PAC spending is from Musk’s personal wealth until after the election, the most recent filings with the Federal Election Commission show he’s given the group more than $118 million through mid-October.
Democrats, though, have urged people on their side to sign the petition and enter the contest.
“Every Democrat I know supports the U.S. Constitution including the First and Second Amendments,” Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, said during an appearance on comedian Bill Maher’s talk show last week.
“Go ahead and sign up,” Polis said, urging them to take “Elon Musk’s money.”
But Musk has also said that each winner is required to “be a spokesperson for the petition” in exchange for the $1 million prize. All 14 winners have either recorded videos for Musk’s super PAC, been photographed for the super PAC or both.
Of the 14 winners so far, four live in Pennsylvania, three in North Carolina, three in Michigan and one each in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and Wisconsin. For the first several days of the contest, only Pennsylvania residents were eligible to win.
