Republican megadonor Peter Thiel will reportedly hold out from funding political candidates in 2024, according to two sources close to Thiel. The Silicon Valley tech billionaire believes Republicans are making a mistake by focusing on cultural flashpoints and should be more concerned with spurring U.S. innovation, the sources said according to Reuters.
Thiel’s business associate cited recent abortion bans and restrictions on which bathrooms transgender students can use in schools as two examples of why he is unhappy with the Republican Party’s focus.
The German-born entrepreneur has a fortune estimated at around $4.2 billion after co-founding PayPal, Palantir and investing early in Facebook, per Reuters. He has contributed around $50 million to state and federal political candidates and campaigns since 2000, according to OpenSecrets.
In the past, Thiel has called the debate around transgender bathroom access a “distraction.” Thiel’s reported withdrawal from funding U.S. politics comes as the issues of abortion and LGBTQ rights loom at the center of hundreds of bills across the country, according to the ACLU.
Pew Research analyzed the topics that Democrat and Republican candidates tweeted about in 2022 and found that Republicans primarily spoke about the issues of immigration, foreign policy, and taxation, while Democrats focused more on LGBTQ issues, climate and environment, and abortion.
However, the data also revealed that Republicans were more likely to use negative language on major topics compared to Democrats.
Thiel’s reported backing out of U.S. politics comes as social issues move more front and center, which has alienated some other prominent donors, according to Reuters.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is expected to launch a White House run, recently signed a bill banning most abortions after six weeks in Florida. At least 18 other states have also put up new restrictions, per Axios.
Meanwhile, leading GOP candidate Donald Trump has pledged to go after attempted sex reassignment surgeries for minors if elected in 2024.
