Billionaire Trump backer weighing Ca. governor bid
SAN JOSE — Peter Thiel, the billionaire who was one of the few high-profile Silicon Valley supporters of President-elect Donald Trump, is considering running for governor of California in 2018, Politico reported yesterday.
The news organization attributed the story to “three Republicans familiar with his thinking.”
Politico said the 49-yearold Thiel, a San Francisco resident who co-founded PayPal in 1999 and was an early investor in Facebook, has been discussing a possible bid with a small circle of advisers including Rob Morrow, who Politico said “has emerged as his political consigliere.” Morrow has worked at San Franciscobased Clarium Capital, an investment management firm and hedge fund founded by Thiel.
Neither Thiel nor a representative responded requests for comment.
But Politico also reported that some people who have been in touch with Thiel recently are skeptical that he’ll jump into the race. They noted that he is a famously private man who lives in a state where anti-Trump sentiment is rampant. Democrat Hillary Clinton trounced the New York billionaire by 2-1 here.
The speculation is fueled by the fact that Thiel this week granted a rare interview to Maureen Dowd, the New York Times columnist.
At one point, Thiel said, perhaps facetiously, that he’d be “fine” with California splitting off from the rest of the country.
“I think it would be good for California, good for the rest of the country. It would help Mr. Trump’s reelection campaign,” he told Dowd.
Thiel gave a pro-Trump speech — in which he was cheered for saying he was proud to be gay — at last July’s summer’s Republican National Convention in Cleveland. And since 2000 he has donated more than $8.5 million to federal candidates and committees.