Peter Thiel is the billionaire responsible for Silicon Valley as we know it. If you used PayPal for your latest purchase from a Facebook friend, you can thank Thiel for founding the former and funding the latter.
The venture capitalist is now expanding his portfolio by taking full advantage of the latest investment opportunities popping up across the United States: populist Republicans. Thiel’s support for conservative policies is far from new. To understand the billionaire’s political philosophy, one has to look before the days of Facebook and PayPal.
As an undergraduate student at Stanford University, he founded the Stanford Review in 1987 and served as its first editor-in-chief. The publication sought to shake up the discourse on campus by “presenting alternative viewpoints,” but it did more than just that. The Stanford Review provided Thiel with a group of allies when he felt surrounded by enemies.
The young pioneer kept his circle close, and it’s all documented in a Medium piece written in 2012. Ken Howery is the former managing editor of the Stanford Review, and he co-founded PayPal and the Founders Fund with Thiel. Stephen Cohen and Joe Lonsdale each served as editor-in-chief during their time with the Stanford Review and founded Palantir Technologies alongside Thiel.
Thiel’s connections at Stanford extend beyond Silicon Valley startups. There would likely be no Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) without the Stanford Review, which he wrote for while studying at Stanford.
Hawley’s work for the publication that Thiel founded, funds, and continues to meet with eventually paid off. “In 2015 and 2016, Thiel made a critical three-hundred-thousand-dollar donation to the campaign of Josh Hawley, who was then running for Missouri attorney general,” writes Benjamin Wallace-Wells in the New Yorker.
Thiel Foundation COO Blake Masters is the latest example of Thiel’s college connections being utilized to their maximum potential. While studying at Stanford Law School, Masters took a class on startups taught by Thiel. Masters took notes on the subject, and he and Thiel later published them as the New York Times bestseller Zero to One.
Masters is running to be the Republican nominee for Senate in Arizona, and Thiel is making sure his ally has all the money he needs. The Saving Arizona PAC is a Masters-aligned political action committee and received a $10 million donation from Thiel in 2021. After providing a $3.5 million contribution in May and another $1.5 million in July, Thiel’s contributions to Masters amount to $15 million.
In Ohio, a similar situation unfolded during the Republican primary for Senate. The Protect Ohio Values PAC received similar amounts of money and is aligned with J.D. Vance, the former president of a venture capital fund co-founded by Thiel.
Thiel is also a link between college-educated populist Republicans and former President Donald Trump’s grassroots base. He was an outspoken supporter of Trump among Silicon Valley elites and spoke at the 2016 Republican National Convention. Thiel has Trump’s ear and is using the former president’s influence to shape the GOP in his image.
With both Masters and Vance receiving Trump’s endorsement, Thiel has gotten past the first hurdle for his political aspirations. The next step for the billionaire lies in making his candidates the standard-bearers of the GOP. Vance has already received the party’s nomination in Ohio, and Masters is the front-runner in the Republican primary for Arizona’s Senate seat. Should Masters win the primary election on Aug. 2, Thiel will have successfully laid the groundwork for a populist takeover of the Republican Party.
Thiel’s evolution from Stanford Review editor-in-chief to venture capitalist and Republican kingmaker is not a series of lucky coincidences. His political philosophy rests on Carl Schmitt’s friend-enemy distinction, and it has propelled his inner circle to heights that many aspire to reach. A gay Silicon Valley venture capitalist launching a coordinated populist takeover of the GOP is not the punchline to a crude joke. It’s the reality of the 21st century Republican Party.
James Sweet is a summer 2022 Washington Examiner fellow.
