Blake Masters, a close ally to billionaire Peter Thiel and current Thiel Capital executive, launched a bid for the Arizona Senate Monday. As a Republican, he\u2019ll be seeking to take on Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ). Masters joins a growing pool of Republican candidates, including Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich and solar power executive Jim Lamon.<\/p>\n
On his campaign website, Masters champions a total ban on illegal immigration, calling for the government to use \u201cphysical walls, surveillance technology, thousands more border patrol agents, and mandatory E-Verify for employers\u201d along the US-Mexico border. Thiel\u2019s Founder\u2019s Fund invested in the border and military surveillance company Anduril, valuing the company at $1 billion.<\/p>\n
Masters\u2019 website also vows to \u201ctake on the \u2018big tech\u2019 platforms \u2014 the new public square where free speech is constantly under attack.\u201d However, no clear policy solutions are listed on the site. <\/strong>Arizona is expected to become a key battleground state for both Republicans and Democrats in the 2022 midterms. <\/p>\n A 34-year-old Tucson resident, Masters rose to prominence by co-authoring Zero to One<\/em> alongside Thiel in 2014 and serving as an executive in a number of Thiel\u2019s companies. In April, Politico <\/em>reported that Thiel created the new Saving Arizona PAC in support of Masters\u2019 anticipated Senate run, donating $10 million to fund the PAC. <\/p>\n Thiel has emerged as one of the biggest donors leading up to the 2022 midterm election cycle. In March, Thiel donated $10 million in support of Hillbilly Elegy<\/em> author J.D. Vance\u2019s campaign for Ohio Senate. <\/p>\n Since 2016, Thiel has supported a number of Republican political candidates, including former President Donald Trump. Thiel has been a longtime critic of Democrats and has donated thousands in support of Republican politicians like former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach and Missouri\u2019s Sen. Josh Hawley. Thiel was one of the earliest investors in Facebook.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Blake Masters, a close ally to billionaire Peter Thiel and current Thiel Capital executive,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[38,64,62,66,63,65,69,67,71,68,70],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/itparadise.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1514"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/itparadise.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/itparadise.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itparadise.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itparadise.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1514"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/itparadise.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1514\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2029,"href":"https:\/\/itparadise.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1514\/revisions\/2029"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itparadise.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/itparadise.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itparadise.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itparadise.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Masters\u2019 website also vows to \u201ctake on the \u2018big tech\u2019 platforms\u201d<\/q><\/aside>\n