Blake Masters

Blake Gates Masters (born August 5, 1986) is an American venture capitalist and political candidate.

Masters was born in Denver, Colorado, in 1986, the son of Marilyn, who ran a tutoring center, and Scott Masters, who worked in the software industry.

He grew up in Tucson, Arizona.

In high school, Masters attended Green Fields Country Day School, which was at the time a private school in Tucson, where he played basketball.

He graduated in 2004.

In a 2006 essay criticizing the War in Iraq on the libertarian site LewRockwell.com, Masters decried U.S. entry into World War I and described a quote from Nazi war criminal Hermann Goering, on the susceptibility of the masses to incitements of war, as being "particularly representative and poignant".

He also endorsed conspiracy theorist G. Edward Griffin's claim that the "Houses of Morgan and Rothschild" were linked to the sinking of the Lusitania.

During his college years, Masters contended that Iraq and al-Qaeda were not "substantial threats to Americans", calling for "unrestricted immigration" and an isolationist foreign policy.

On his 2006 writings, he told the Jewish Insider in 2022, "I was 19, writing in opposition to the Iraq War—a stance that turned out to be prescient. I went too far and stated that no recent American wars have been just."

He added: "I suppose it was only a matter of time before I got called antisemitic for criticizing wartime propaganda in an essay I wrote as a teenager."

Masters' posts became a political issue after they were unearthed during his 2022 Senate campaign.

The Anti-Defamation League criticized him, and Masters' primary rival Jim Lamon ran television ads highlighting the posts.

Masters received a bachelor's degree in political science from Stanford University in 2008.

Masters spent four months in 2010 as a law clerk for a U.S. Attorney's Office.

In January 2011 he met Thiel at Stanford Law School.

He then earned a J.D. from Stanford University Law School in 2012.

As a teenage undergraduate, Masters expressed his political views on a CrossFit chat room and a LiveJournal blog.

They exchanged emails with each other a year later and Thiel invited Masters to attend a class he was to teach in spring 2012.

Masters would post detailed notes from Thiel's lectures on a blog which grew popular within the tech community.

Renditions of Masters' notes reappeared online, prompting Masters to get in contact with Thiel about compiling them into a book.

Masters co-founded Judicata, a legal research service, in 2013.

Frequently referred to as a protégé of businessman Peter Thiel, Masters co-wrote Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future with Thiel in 2014, based on notes Masters had taken at Stanford Law School in 2012.

He was later chief operating officer of Thiel's investment firm, Thiel Capital, and also president of the Thiel Foundation.

In the August 2 GOP primary of the 2022 United States Senate election in Arizona, Masters defeated state Attorney General Mark Brnovich and businessman Jim Lamon to become the Republican Party nominee.

He aligned himself with Thiel, who funded his primary campaign with $15 million, and former president Donald Trump, both of whom endorsed him in June 2022.

During his campaign, Masters promoted writings by Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and white supremacist Sam Francis, and touted his endorsement of the Great Replacement conspiracy theory.

He lost the general election to incumbent Democrat Mark Kelly.

Masters is running for the United States House of Representatives in 2024.

He is one of seven candidates vying to win the Republican primary.

Zero to One was released in September 2014 and received warm reviews from The Atlantic and Publishers Weekly.

According to Politico, the book portrayed "globalization as the enemy of innovation."

Masters was included on Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2014.

Thiel chose Masters and other employees to assist in the presidential transition of Donald Trump in November 2016.

The website officially launched in 2017, though Masters left the project in 2014.

In October 2019, Masters suggested he would launch a primary challenge against Republican U.S. Senator Martha McSally, expressing concern McSally was not a good candidate and criticizing her loss in the 2018 election, which Masters said was a "winnable" race.

The website was acquired by Fastcase in 2020.

After meeting Thiel, Masters went to work for him, becoming chief operating officer of the investment firm Thiel Capital and president of the Thiel Foundation.

In January 2020, Masters said he would not run against McSally.

In March 2022, Masters resigned from his positions at Thiel's investment firm and foundation to campaign in the 2022 Arizona Senate race.

[[File:2022 United States Senate Republican primary election in Arizona results map by county.svg|thumb|upright|Republican primary results by county {{legend|#e27f7f|Masters}}