A conservative megadonor is sitting out '24. The GOP is probably relieved
Conservative megadonor Peter Thiel has informed his personal network that he doesn’t plan to contribute to any candidates this cycle, according to a new report from Reuters—a development that may actually come as a relief to Senate Republicans who’ve watched in frustration as his money has gone to prop up some truly toxic candidates. Thiel's withdrawal comes at a time when, according to Reuters, he’s grown alienated from Donald Trump and angry with the GOP’s “focus on hot-button U.S. cultural issues'' like abortion and anti-trans policies, though Thiel and Trump very much were on the same side in two crucial 2022 contests.
In a speech on the floor of the 2016 Republican National Convention, Thiel famously declared, “I am proud to be gay. I am proud to be a Republican,” but just four years later, he ardently backed a Senate candidate who had very different priorities. The billionaire not only hosted a fundraiser for former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who had written the plank condemning same-sex marriage in the most recent GOP platform, he also contributed over $2 million to a pro-Kobach super PAC.
Thiel was one of Kobach’s few fans in the upper echelons of the party, though. Mitch McConnell and his allies at the Senate Leadership Fund feared that Kobach, who had just lost the 2018 gubernatorial contest to Laura Kelly, was so weak that his nomination would give Democrats the chance to win their first Senate race in the Sunflower State since 1932; Democrats agreed, as they aired ads to help Kobach secure the nod. But Rep. Roger Marshall, with the aid of millions in support from an SLF front group, decisively beat Kobach in the primary and held the seat in the fall.