That time anti-LGBTQ candidate Blake Masters went to the gay wedding of his biggest financial backer – Queerty

August 18, 2022 News Editor

Meet Blake Masters.

He’s the 36-year-old venture capitalist and Republican nominee challenging Democrat Mark Kelly for his U.S. Senate seat in Arizona.

He’s also a homophobic pile of garbage who wants to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the SCOTUS decision establishing a right to same-sex marriage.

Oh, and his campaign is being largely funded by billionaire Peter Thiel… who is gay… and married to a man.

Before his recent foray into politics, Masters, who has never held public office before, worked for Thiel, who has reportedly funneled at least $15 million into a pro-Masters super PAC called Saving Arizona PAC.

The guys are close. So close that they wrote a book together in 2014 and, in 2017, Masters was invited to Thiel’s wedding to Matt Danzeisen… even though he doesn’t support gay marriage and thinks same-sex unions should be illegal.

According to his ivoterguide profile, Masters also believes “religious freedom” must be protected at all costs and that businesses should be allowed to discriminate against LGBTQ people if being gay violates their moral and/or religious beliefs.

“This was one of the Democrats’ most despicable tactics; if you disagree with their politics, they will come after your business and livelihood,” he said in the questionnaire. “That is unacceptable and un-American. I will fight for individuals and businesses’ religious freedoms.”

When asked whether sexual orientation and gender identity should be protected classes in non-discrimination laws, Masters conveniently chose not to answer. Nor did he respond to a question about the separation of church and state.

On his campaign website, he promises that to “protect religious freedoms” he will “ensure that left-wing ‘antidiscrimination’ law never infringes on your right to honor God in peace and freedom.”

And on his Twitter page, he has vowed to push for a federal version of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law, saying “tax dollars should not fund radical gender ideology and weird sex instruction for children.”

When I’m in the U.S. Senate, I will push a federal version of the Florida law: your tax dollars should not fund radical gender ideology and weird sex instruction for children.

— Blake Masters (@bgmasters) March 11, 2022

We could go on (and on), but we think you probably get the point.

So, that’s all terrible, right?

Well, here’s the good news…

Masters is trailing Kelly in the polls. According to a survey from the non-partisan group Center Street PAC released last week, Kelly is leading 54% to 40% among likely voters, with only 7% undecided.

In fact, things are looking so bleak for Masters that, just two weeks after clinching his party’s nomination, a key national GOP organization has already slashed its planned financial support for him.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee initially pledged to spend $3.5 million on ads in Arizona to try and help get Masters elected, but a spokesperson for the group now says it plans to “reprogram” where it spends that money.

Chris Hartline insists the National Republican Senatorial Committee isn’t “abandoning Arizona”, it’s just taking the cash it was going to use to boost Masters and “spending it elsewhere” instead.

“We can get better (advertising) rates if we do coordinated spending and hybrid ads with our candidates than we can from the (independent expenditure) side,” he tells AZ Central. “We’ve found a lot of success going with the hybrid and coordinated route because of the rates and the control that we have.”

As of last month, Masters had $1.6 million in his campaign coffers, compared to Kelly’s $24.8 million.