Billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel said he would financially boost Arizona Republican Senate candidate Blake Masters if the Republican leadership political action committee agrees to match his donation.
Thiel reportedly told the Senate Leadership Fund, which is aligned with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), that he would make the multimillion-dollar investment if the Senate Leadership Fund could invest the same amount, according to Axios. The Senate Leadership Fund apparently said it would be interested in the deal but hasn’t yet raised the money. The deal would come out to $10 million in total split between Thiel and the Senate Leadership Fund and would fund advertising during the crucial last three weeks of the election.
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A recent CBS poll showed that Masters is only 3 points behind Kelly, sparking fresh interest in the race. Thiel backed both Masters and Ohio’s Republican Senate candidate J.D. Vance with $15 million each in the primaries and said earlier this month he’d stop pumping money into the Vance campaign as the Republican seems poised for victory.
“That [Ohio Senate] race is done in my mind,” Thiel told guests at a recent fundraiser, per CNBC. “We just have to get Blake over the finish line.”
The Senate Leadership Fund canceled tens of millions of dollars in funding for Masters’s bid against incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) because Masters has lagged in the polls. The PAC’s withdrawal was due to outside spenders stepping up for Masters, with Senate Leadership Fund President Steven Law saying, “We’re glad to see Republican outside forces showing up in a big way in Arizona, with millions in new spending pledged to take down Mark Kelly in the final stretch.”
Though neither campaign has released its third-quarter fundraising totals, Masters had a lot of ground to make up, according to the last reports in June. Kelly had about $52 million in his coffers at the time, compared to Masters’s $5 million.
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McConnell has been urging Thiel to open his coffers for the struggling candidate, but the billionaire reportedly preferred to keep his involvement to the primaries. At McConnell’s request, however, he hosted a fundraiser for Masters at his California home last month.
Republicans need a net gain of one Senate seat in order to take control of the upper chamber.
