On Wednesday, The Washington Post reported that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is in an argument with right-wing tech billionaire Peter Thiel about which of them should be responsible for funding Blake Masters, the GOP's Arizona Senate candidate and Thiel's longtime business associate and protégé.
"A high-stakes game of chicken [has played out] between McConnell and Thiel, culminating in a move last Friday by a super PAC linked to the minority leader, the Senate Leadership Fund, to abandon about $8 million worth of TV, radio and digital ads originally booked to boost Masters," reported Isaac Stanley-Becker, Hannah Knowles, and Isaac Arnsdorf. "The move was preceded by a pair of phone calls last week in which Thiel spoke to McConnell and the Kentucky Republican’s top fundraising lieutenant, Steven Law, who heads the Senate Leadership Fund."
Thiel, an early backer of former President Donald Trump, is said to be uninterested in funding candidates this cycle, even though he helped push forward preferred candidates who went on to win primaries — and this has caused tension as Republican leaders aren't interested in footing the bill on Masters, either.
"McConnell told Thiel over the phone last week that [J.D.] Vance’s race in Ohio was proving more costly for the Senate Leadership Fund than anticipated, that money was not unlimited and that there was a need for the billionaire to 'come in, in a big way, in Arizona,' as a person familiar with the conversation described his words," said the report. McConnell wanted Thiel to split the funding half and half with the Senate Leadership Fund; Thiel, however is not interested in doing this, believing a more direct investment in Masters will be used as a negative talking point against him by Democrats."
Masters is challenging Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, who is seeking a full term after defeating appointed GOP Sen. Martha McSally to serve out the remainder of the late Sen. John McCain's term in 2020. Masters has triggered a number of controversies, including calling to privatize Social Security, speaking positively of the Unabomber, claiming diversity at the Federal Reserve is tanking the economy and associating with an anti-Semitic social network executive.
"Campaign advisers urged Masters to be more careful with his words during the primary, according to a person familiar with the conversations, but Masters resisted the idea of being 'scripted,'" said the report. "Democratic attack ads have centered on Masters’s comments on Social Security and abortion, despite the candidate’s efforts to walk back his words."
