Thiel Capital COO Blake Masters Announces Run For Arizona Senate

Blake Masters, an ally of Republican donor Peter Thiel, announced Monday on Twitter he is challenging Arizona Democratic Senator Mark Kelly’s seat.

Masters, the chief operating officer at Thiel Capital and president of the Thiel Foundation, portrayed himself as a supporter of working-class Americans while talking about immigration and critical race theory in his first campaign video.

“Our leaders have shipped millions of jobs to China, and the internet, which was supposed to give us an awesome future, is instead being used to shut us up,” he said. “We are up against a media that lies to us, schools that teach our kids to hate our country, and corporations that have gotten so big, they think they’re bigger than America.”

If you want to win, please donate what you can! https://t.co/DS8adUJsT1

— Blake Masters (@bgmasters) July 12, 2021

“It’s time to put this country first. It’s time to enforce the law, and we need to finish the wall,” he said. “We gotta build an economy where you can afford to raise a family on one single income.”

He did not mention either Democratic President Biden or Kelly in the video. Instead, he attacked them in a press release where he announced his campaign, according to The Hill.

“This country used to work,” Masters said, according to The Hill. “Now it doesn’t. The Biden Administration is a train wreck, and Mark Kelly is nowhere to be found. We have to take this seat – and the United States Senate – back.”

Thiel has contributed $10 million to Masters’ campaign, according to The Hill. Masters has previously raised more than $3 million to elect Republicans to the Arizona State Legislature through a political action committee in 2020. (RELATED: Arizona Governor Signs Bill Banning Critical Race Theory In Government)

Masters will compete in the primary against Republicans like state Attorney General Mark Brnovich and former general of the Arizona National Guard Michel McGuire, according to The Hill.

Kelly’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Caller News Foundation.

The Arizona Democratic Party attacked Masters in a statement for “trying to buy his way to the Senate”

“Barreling into the race with $10 million in promised outside spending from a California billionaire, Blake Masters can’t even pretend he’s running to actually represent Arizonans,” said Sarah Guggenheimer, ADP Spokesperson. “Masters’ candidacy only serves to make a chaotic, expensive, and absurd GOP primary that’s centered around President Trump, not Arizonans, even more volatile.”

Kelly dealt with some controversy for avoiding questions in May 2020 concerning investments he made by a Chinese technology conglomerate to a space exploration company he co-founded, before his win in November 2020.

He also returned a $55,000 paycheck earned for a speech in the United Arab Emirates in March 2019, avoiding the appearance of ties to a foreign government accused of violating fundamental human rights.

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