Thiel-funded group buying TV time to help Blake Masters' Senate bid
Weeks of relative media silence from key Republican groups in Arizona's U.S. Senate race may have ended Thursday with new support coming from a political action committee backed by billionaire Peter Thiel.
His protégé, Blake Masters, has campaigned for weeks since clinching the Republican nomination a month ago, trailing badly in fundraising to his opponent, Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz. The race is seen as critical to GOP hopes of reclaiming the Senate.
Saving Arizona, the PAC Thiel put a record $15 million in to help Masters win the Republican Senate nomination, reserved at least $50,000 in television ads beginning Friday, the New York Times first reported.
It was not immediately clear whether Thiel bankrolled the latest spending, but a reporter with Puck News covering money in Silicon Valley suggested in a tweet that the PAC had turned to other donors.
That move comes after the National Republican Senatorial Committee canceled reserved TV spending in October as part of a shift to "hybrid" ads tying candidates to their parties as a whole.
The Senate Leadership Fund, a PAC aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., also scratched $8 million in reserved time in Arizona. Citing unnamed sources, the Washington Post last week noted tense conversations between Thiel, McConnell and the man who heads to SLF for McConnell.
The message to Thiel was blunt: Masters needs financial help and Republicans don't have unlimited resources.
The Masters campaign declined to comment on spending by Saving Arizona, which by law must be done without their coordination. The Kelly campaign declined to comment.
Chris Hartline, a spokesman for the NRSC, said his organization still plans to help defeat Kelly.
"Mark Kelly is clearly beatable. The NRSC is currently on the air in Arizona both from the (independent expenditure) and in a coordinated buy with the Masters campaign," he said. "The voters of Arizona deserve to know how Mark Kelly has failed to fight for them, causing a raging border crisis and record inflation."
The back and forth over ad spending reflects the reality that Masters is not expected to financially compete with Kelly. In mid-July, two weeks before dispatching his Republican rivals, Masters' campaign had $1.6 million in available cash.
Kelly, who was unopposed in his primary, had nearly $25 million. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has put $6.9 million into attacking Masters since he won the primary, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Masters began the general election campaign trailing Kelly in the limited polling by organizations not affiliated with the parties.
The disparity is magnified by the rapidly shrinking election calendar. Early voting in Arizona begins in early October, limiting any candidate's ability to change the trajectory of a trailing campaign.
Thiel's previous support for Masters matches the $15 million he spent to help J.D. Vance win the Republican nomination in Ohio's Senate race. Both sums are believed to be the largest ever spent from a single source.
In both Ohio and Arizona, Thiel's preferred candidates won the Republican nomination, but only after receiving the endorsement of former President Donald Trump.
Reach the reporter Ronald J. Hansen at ronald.hansen@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4493. Follow him on Twitter @ronaldjhansen.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Thiel-funded group buying TV time to help Blake Masters' Senate bid
