Billionaire Peter Thiel, who already spent $15 million on the super PAC that helped Blake Masters win the Republican nomination to represent Arizona in the U.S. Senate, has said he's willing to chip in another $5 million in the race if the Senate Leadership Fund, the super PAC aligned with Sen. Mitch McConnell, can come up with matching funds.
However, Steven Law, who heads the Senate Leadership Fund (SLF), reportedly told Thiel that he couldn't find the resources to provide the matching funds, reports The Washington Post, quoting sources speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Thiel's offer came after he said he wasn't going to spend more money on the Masters campaign in the general election. He reportedly told the SLF that he'll spend more money if they could match his donation, reports Axios.
The news comes after the PAC canceled $9.6 million in ads that were reserved for the race, saying it had costs elsewhere and that other conservative groups were spending money on Masters' campaign.
Thiel and the SLF have not commented on the development.
The race between Masters and Sen. Mark Kelly, the incumbent Democrat, remains close with the election less than a month away.
Earlier this summer, The Washington Post reported that Thiel had told McConnell and others with the super PAC that he wasn't planning to spend any more on the race beyond the $15 million he'd given to Saving Arizona, a PAC supporting Masters.
The billionaire said that he believed McConnell's group should spend its money toward the GOP regaining majority control of the Senate and that he feared that if he spent more money on the race, that could be used as a talking point for the Democrats.
Axios reports that as Masters was trailing Kelly in earlier polling, Thiel and the SLF had backed away from him. However, a recent CBS News poll showed Kelly's lead had shrunk to nearly 3 points, so extra money like Thiel's could potentially help narrow those numbers even further.
Kelly, though, has eclipsed Masters in fundraising, bringing in $52 million through the end of June, in comparison to just $5 million raised by Masters' campaign. The candidates have not released their third-quarter fundraising figures.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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