Blake Masters, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Arizona, recently raised nearly $575,000 in campaign contributions by selling digital non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, to political supporters.
Masters, one of the handful of Republican candidates running to unseat Sen. Mark Kelly in this year’s election, minted 99 limited edition NFTs based on the cover art of "Zero to One," a book he co-authored with Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel.
The NFTs cost $5,800 each (the maximum an individual can contribute to a political campaign) and Bloomberg reports that all 99 were sold within 36 hours, netting a total of $574,200 for the campaign.
While the NFT itself may lack intrinsic value, these donors will also receive a signed copy of the book, access to a private Discord chat for token holders and an invitation to attend a party hosted by Masters and Thiel later this year.
“This is the first NFT we’re issuing to help share the book’s cool history, and to help raise money for my U.S. Senate campaign,” Masters’ NFT site says. “So we can help use 'Zero to One' thinking to save America from the brink of destruction.”
Before declaring his run for Senate last summer, Masters ran Thiel Capital, a multibillion-dollar investment firm, as well as the Thiel Foundation. Both enterprises are seeded by the money Thiel made by building technology companies, including as a co-founder at PayPal and Palantir and by investing early in Facebook.
Thiel’s connection to Masters has been well-publicized in the national media, it’s not his only connection to Arizona. Jack Selby is a board member at InvisionAZ, a group dedicated to boosting the state’s technology ecosystem. Selby was an early employee at PayPal and is currently the managing director of Thiel Capital.
Selby, Thiel and other employees from Thiel Capital and the foundation have all contributed to the campaign, according to federal election data, as have Tyler and Cameron Vinklevoss and members of the DeVos family.
Senate funding race
Masters’ campaign reported raising $1.38 million in the fourth quarter last year, so about 40% of money raised in the quarter came from the NFT sale.
Jim Lamon, a former Valley businessman who is also running as a Republican, reported raising $3.2 million in the fourth quarter, the most among Republican challengers in that period. Lamon has stockpiled the most money so far among Republicans, but that includes $5 million that he personally loaned to his campaign.
Lamon was previously the CEO of DEPCOM Power in Scottsdale and just this week he launched a new ad called “Let’s Go Brandon,” which is a not-so-secret code that directs a slur at President Joe Biden.
Democratic incumbent Mark Kelly reported raising nearly $9 million in the fourth quarter of last year, further cementing himself by far as the biggest fundraiser in the race to date. The Republican primary takes place on August 2 to see who will face Kelly in the November 8 election.
