Blake Masters shrugs off financial ties to mogul Peter Thiel: 'I don’t think he needs me'
Sen. JD Vance’s nomination as the GOP’s vice-presidential pick created a newly powerful ally for one of the higher-profile faces of conservatism in Arizona and has put the spotlight on the tech billionaire who helped launch both politicians.
Like Vance, R-Ohio, congressional candidate Blake Masters is close with the tech mogul and entrepreneur Peter Thiel, an early investor in PayPal in the 1990s and Facebook in the 2000s. Masters traveled this month to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee to celebrate Vance’s nomination, calling him a “personal friend.”
Thiel’s ideology has been described by a biographer as a blend of “contrarian” impulses aligned with libertarianism and nationalism. He was an instructor for one of Masters’ classes at Stanford University. Masters' detailed notes on what Thiel said became an online sensation within the tech community and they became the foundation of “Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future,” a book Masters co-authored with Thiel.
Masters’ ties to Thiel are financial, too. A $25 million dollar bonus from his position leading Thiel’s investment firm has helped catapult Masters’ net worth to somewhere between $8 million and $20 million, according to his financial disclosure. The terms for the bonus were agreed to in 2018.
From that fortune Masters has loaned several million dollars to his ongoing campaign for Arizona’s 8th Congressional District seat. That has him with the most campaign cash ahead of the race’s July 30 primary. He has depended more on his personal wealth and less on individual contributions compared to two of his leading rivals, the Donald Trump-endorsed candidate Abe Hamadeh and Arizona House Speaker Ben Toma.
A pro-cryptocurrency political group spent about half a million dollars in support of Masters this summer, according to federal campaign finance records.
Hamadeh has accused Masters of being funded by his “Big Tech, billionaire friends.”
The watchdog group Campaign Legal Center raised concerns about Masters’ ties to Thiel during his Senate run, arguing his lucrative ties to Thiel raised conflict of interest concerns. As a co-founder of a tech company that relies on federal contracts, and a board member of Facebook, Thiel has a financial stake in Congress’ operations, the group argued at the time.
Changes in Masters’ financial portfolio have attenuated some of those concerns, Danielle Caputo with Campaign Legal Center told the Arizona Republic in July. He has since stepped down from his post with Thiel’s investment firm, for example, and his hefty bonus is already in hand, with terms agreed to years beforehand, which dispels the idea of a straightforward quid pro quo between Thiel and Masters, Caputo said.
Still, his strong ties to one wealthy and powerful person raises questions in her mind, she said.
“When you have an individual who has so many ties to one specific person, or one specific industry, it starts to basically become a concern of: Are they actually going to act in the public’s best interest … or in the personal financial interests of the other people?
“How can Masters assure, if he were to become a congressman, that (the financial ties) would not influence his decision-making?”
Posed the question, Masters argued that Thiel, whose multi-billion dollar net worth would place the tech mogul among the hundreds of wealthiest individuals in the U.S., doesn’t need his help. He said the idea that he is financially beholden to Thiel is “facially absurd.”
“I’m proud to have been very successful in business,” he said. “I think it’s good to put business aside and run for office, because I have a lot to contribute in Congress, and I see the Democrats ruining our country.
“I’m happy to put my money where my mouth is, and use it to spread what I believe,” he said.
Masters said that he disagrees with Thiel about “plenty.” He offered the example of abortion: Masters has run on a staunchly pro-life platform, while Thiel has reportedly scaled back his political giving in part because he is unhappy with the GOP’s focus on the topic.
“I say what I think. I’m very independent, and I’m happy to disagree with everybody including Peter Thiel, including Elon Musk, including JD Vance,” Masters said.
Thiel helped Vance win a seat in the U.S. Senate with $15 million to support his 2022 campaign, which launched Vance to his selection last week as former President Donald Trump's running mate.
Thiel reportedly told associates he was not planning to donate to any political candidates during the 2024 election cycle. He said in June that he'd vote for Trump "if you put a gun to my head."
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Blake Masters dismisses ties to tech billionaire Peter Thiel
