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Elon Musk awarded the final $1mn prize of the 2024 election campaign to a Donald Trump campaign worker, according to election filings.
Tyler VanAkin was pictured on election day at an Atlanta airport as the final winner of the contest run by Musk’s pro-Trump campaign group, which offered $1mn prizes to registered voters in swing states who signed a petition “in support of the constitution”.
The accompanying post did not mention that he had worked on the Trump campaign and was heading to the election night party in West Palm Beach.
Musk devised the campaign cash giveaway weeks before the election. The billionaire delivered a giant cheque to the first winner on October 19, and his America political action committee announced prizes each day on his social media platform, X.
The giveaway was the subject of a lawsuit from Philadelphia district attorney Larry Krasner, who claimed Musk was operating an “illegal lottery scheme” to collect voters’ contact information.
Musk’s Pac successfully argued that the contest was a job posting and a judge concluded the winners were “not determined by chance”, but by “a multi-step process that involved looking at their public posts on social media and meeting them in person . . . to make sure their personality would be a good fit for the role”.
America Pac declined to comment on its criteria or the selection of VanAkin.
Tyler VanAkin of Reading, MI is our final recipient of $1M for signing our petition to support the Constitution.
Tyler was traveling but we were able to meet up with him before he boarded his flight.
Thank you all who signed in Support of the Rights to Free Speech and Bear Arms pic.twitter.com/lx1UT2DyZ4
— America (@america) November 5, 2024
A year-end Federal Election Commission filing from America Pac shows VanAkin was paid $1mn in November as a “spokesperson consultant” along with 17 other winners. Some had donated to Republican campaigns during the election cycle, but no others were employed by political committees.
While America Pac produced video interviews with many of the winners, VanAkin was not mentioned apart from the post announcing his win.
A person familiar with the campaign said VanAkin’s campaign co-workers were surprised by the announcement, and sought to limit its further promotion.
Musk spent more than $250mn of his own money and held rallies campaigning for Trump to support his push for the presidency.
The billionaire’s America Pac also promised payments of $47 or $100 to every registered swing-state voter who signed the petition, as well as bonuses for referring others to do the same.
FEC filings show the programme paid out $40mn for these incentives through a Musk-controlled firm called “United States of America Inc”.
Since Trump’s victory, Musk has frequently been seen in Mar-a-Lago attending high-level meetings with the president-elect, and was appointed by Trump to co-lead a commission to eliminate government waste.
Erin Chlopak, a campaign finance expert at the Campaign Legal Center, said the $1mn prizes were “just one of the ways Elon Musk sought to use his power as the world’s richest person to help elect his preferred presidential candidate and, in turn, buy an extraordinary level of access to and influence in the incoming Trump administration”.
Chlopak added VanAkin’s award “probably wouldn’t amount to a federal campaign finance law violation on its own” if the terms of the contest were equally applied and he was not selected because of his role on the Trump campaign.
She pointed to other legal concerns about the giveaway, such as warnings by the Department of Justice that it could violate laws prohibiting payments for votes.
The petition website does not mention any exclusions from the contest for campaign employees or affiliates, but states that winners must be registered voters in one of seven swing states.
Public records show VanAkin, a chiropractor who co-founded a practice in the Washington suburbs, is registered to vote at his parents’ address in the swing state of Michigan and submitted an absentee ballot in the 2024 election.
The Trump campaign employed VanAkin between June and October. He received $14,000 in payments labelled “advance consulting & per diem” — for planning logistics ahead of campaign rallies — and $16,000 in travel reimbursements, according to FEC filings.
Instagram posts show VanAkin with campaign staff at a bus tour stop and at the West Palm Beach party.
VanAkin declined to comment when reached by the FT. In testimony for the Pennsylvania case, America Pac treasurer Chris Young noted prize recipients were required to sign nondisclosure agreements.
The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
