John — Thanks in part to supporters like you making him toxic to Republican candidates, Elon Musk recently announced that he's "taking a step back" from politics. But unfortunately, he's far from the last extremist billionaire bankrolling Republicans — including those trying to defeat EMILYs List candidates.
In fact, I'm sorry to have to report that tech billionaire and longtime GOP megadonor Peter Thiel, who didn't spend directly on candidates in 2024, is now returning to rightwing politics — and that could make things a lot harder for Democrats this cycle.
Before I dive into the dangers of Thiel and his checkbook, will you chip in to our $125,000 End-of-Month goal? The GOP is throwing everything they can at us, and hitting this goal means more critical support for Democratic pro-choice women:
Peter Thiel is the co-founder of Paypal and Palantir, and his latest claim to fame is underwriting anti-choice extremist JD Vance. Thiel played a major role in Vance's rise to national political prominence, spending $15 million on his 2022 Senate race, and ultimately helped pave the way for his selection as Donald Trump's running mate.
Thiel has led the push for Silicon Valley's richest to shift to the right politically, towards the most extreme Republicans. And after taking 2024 off, Thiel is back. In the first three months of 2025 he's already donated over $1.3 million to Republican committees working to hold the GOP House and Senate majorities.
This upcoming cycle, Thiel could target key races where Democratic pro-choice women like Janelle Bynum (OR-05) and Rep. Laura Gillen (NY-04) won by razor-thin margins in 2024. In fact, he's already maxed out the legal donation amount to the vulnerable Republican running against Rebecca Cooke (WI-03). In 2022, he spent millions trying to turn Arizona red, and this year we've endorsed Marlene Galán-Woods (AZ-01) to oust a vulnerable GOP incumbent in the House.
U.S. House Republicans have an early fundraising lead on our candidates, which is why running funds — like our current End-of-Month drive — is so important.
| DONATE $15 | DONATE $35 |
| DONATE $50 | DONATE $100 |
| DONATE $250 | DONATE ANOTHER AMOUNT |
Ben Ray (he/him/his)
Interim Vice President of Federal and Gubernatorial Campaigns, EMILYs List
