Top GOP Donor Will Not Fund Candidates in 2024, 2 Issues Caused His Decision - Report

By Matthew Bush April 26, 2023 at 2:06pm

Republican mega-donor Peter Thiel does not plan on backing any 2024 Republican candidates as the 2024 election cycle inches closer.

According to Reuters, associates close to the tech billionaire say that Thiel is not happy with the GOP’s increased focus on hot-button culture issues rather than the economy and spurring innovation in the U.S.

Exclusive: Tech billionaire and Republican megadonor Peter Thiel, an early backer of former President Donald Trump who later broke with him, has told associates he is not planning to donate to any political candidates in 2024, according to two people close to the businessman… pic.twitter.com/oTFbtEg31I

— Reuters (@Reuters) April 26, 2023

“I am proud to be gay,” Thiel famously said at the 2016 Republican Convention.

“But most of all I am proud to be an American. I don’t pretend to agree with every plank in our party’s platform, but fake culture wars only distract us from our economic decline, and nobody in this race is being honest about it except Donald Trump.”

Peter Thiel: “I am proud to be gay. I am proud to be a Republican. But most of all, I am proud to be an American.”https://t.co/l3VX5a2DHN

— Fox News (@FoxNews) July 22, 2016

Thiel has stood strong on those assertions as his associates told Reuters that the GOP continues to focus on issues like abortion and which bathrooms transgender students can use at their school at the expense of what he considers more important issues.

Should Republicans attempt to appease Thiel?

Thiel came to these conclusions in late 2022 when those issues began coming to the forefront and issues like competing with China and American innovation took a backseat.

According to Open Secrets, Thiel was the ninth-largest individual political donor in America during the 2021-2022 political cycle and the sixth-largest donor to conservative causes.

The website states that the top 100 givers of 2022 made up of 0.1 percent of individual donors, but accounted for more than 70 percent of the money. Thiel gave more than $35 million to conservative candidates that year.

According to the Daily Mail, Thiel has an estimated fortune of $4.2 billion and has used his fortune to support conservative causes in the past, a divergence from other Silicon Valley donors who normally give to Democrats.

In 2016, according to CNBC, Thiel donated $1.25 million to super PACs supporting then-candidate Donald Trump and directly to his campaign.

As more Republicans throw their hats in the 2024 presidential election ring, the money given by conservative donors begins to be somewhat diluted.

To date, Trump, Nikki Haley, Asa Hutchinson, Larry Elder, and Vivek Ramaswamy have officially declared their candidacy for 2024.

The list of those likely to run, including but not limited to Ron DeSantis, Tim Scott, Glenn Youngkin, Mike Pence, and others will dilute Republican donations even further.

The question Republicans have to be asking is where the money will come from if Thiel and others begin holding back their donations because of the party’s stance on social issues.

With the economy suffering and inflation hurting the majority of Americans, Thiel and others want the GOP to focus more on the economy. At the same time, however, cultural and social issues are not going away, and Republicans have to fight that fight as well.

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