A federal judge in Texas has cleared the way for a lawsuit accusing Elon Musk of luring voters with the promise of million-dollar payouts during the 2024 campaign season.
The case, brought by Arizona resident Jacqueline McAferty, claims Musk and his political action committee, America PAC, dangled a chance at a \$1 million prize to entice people into signing a petition in support of the U.S. Constitution. In exchange, participants were required to hand over names, addresses, phone numbers, and emails—data with clear political value in battleground states.
Judge Robert Pitman ruled that McAferty’s allegations were credible enough to move forward. While Musk argued that his sweepstakes was not a lottery but rather a program to “select” recipients who would serve as PAC spokespeople, the judge noted that Musk’s own wording suggested money could be “awarded” or “won.” That, Pitman said, made it plausible that voters were misled into thinking they had entered a random lottery.
McAferty alleges the scheme was designed to funnel voter information into political operations supporting Donald Trump’s successful presidential run. The lawsuit paints the \$1 million-a-day giveaway as an illusion—no real winners, only a mechanism to harvest personal data under the guise of a prize draw.
Musk has denied that any harm was done, claiming contact information alone carried little consequence. Pitman disagreed, suggesting that experts in political data could establish the value of such information in tightly contested states.
The lawsuit was filed on Election Day, November 5, 2024. Just the day before, a Philadelphia judge had declined to shut down the giveaway, ruling that prosecutors there hadn’t proven it was unlawful.
Now, Musk, who lives in Texas and oversees Tesla’s massive Austin operations, faces the possibility of a courtroom battle over whether his headline-grabbing \$1 million “lottery” was a political stunt that crossed the line into illegality.
The case is titled *McAferty v. Musk et al*, U.S. District Court, Western District of Texas, No. 24-01346.
