Elon Musk has donated more to Republicans than Democrats over the past 2 decades

• Elon Musk has given $574,500 to Republicans and $542,000 to the Democrats, per OpenSecrets.
• His donations have gone to politicians, parties, PACs, and referendum campaigns.

Elon Musk has donated more money to Republicans than Democrats since 2002, according to Insider analysis of figures compiled by the nonprofit watchdog OpenSecrets.

He has given a total of $574,500 to Republicans and $542,000 to the Democrats in that period, according to the data. Musk's biggest single donation of $50,000 in March 2015 was to the Democrat Rahm Emmanuel, then the Chicago mayor.

Musk also donated $85,000 to two broadly left-wing referendum campaigns in California.

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The billionaire has given more than $1.2 million to politicians, parties, political action committees (PACs), and referendum campaigns in the two-decade period.

Musk has in the past called himself a Democrat supporter, but urged independent voters to support the Republicans for Congress ahead of last Tuesday's midterm elections.

"Hardcore Democrats or Republicans never vote for the other side, so independent voters are the ones who actually decide who's in charge!" he added on Monday.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO favors a centrist government: "While it's true that I've been under unfair & misleading attack for some time by leading Democrats, my motivation here is for centrist governance, which matches the interests of most Americans."

Musk has previously said he was "socially liberal and fiscally conservative", or even "socially very liberal," but is adamant he's not a "conservative."

In 2015 the world's richest man only donated to Democrats, but the following year only gave to the GOP.

Earlier in June, Musk tweeted that he'd voted for Mayra Flores, who won Texas's 34th Congressional District seat – although she lost it five months later. "The first time I ever voted Republican," the billionaire said at the time.

Through SpaceX, he set up a PAC that donated just over half of its $30,000 to Democrats, with the remainder going to Republicans, per OpenSecrets.

Musk didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.