The billionaire tech CEO may be more responsible than anyone else for the rise of the Republican Senate candidate.
A super PAC called "Saving Arizona" is supported by the founder and early Facebook investor. Jim Lamon wants voters to know it.
The one-time Army Airborne Officer with a thick Southern accent told a crowd of 200 people that Masters only worked for Peter Thiel, who was a founding Facebook board member.
It was a Friday evening, and former President Donald Trump was set to speak the next day alongside Masters, who he endorsed last month, in an adjacent town in the mountainous Yavapai County, until the rally was postponed by nearly a week due to the death of Trump's first wife
As recently as April, the 35-year-old first-time candidate was polling in the single digits.
Masters has been associated with the conservative tech mogul for his entire adult life. He is the co-author of Zero to One, a book about building startups that is based on notes Masters took when he was an undergrad student at the university.
He is associated with a number of Silicon Valley companies. He was the first outside investor in Facebook and served on the board for a while.
Despite their Silicon Valley ties, both Masters and Thiel are conservatives who are critical of so-called "big tech" and the world from which they come.
Since being passed over for the Trump endorsement, Lamon has been hammering Masters over his relationship with Thiel and labeling him a "globalist Facebook board member."
Lamon said, "Oh by the way, just a little bit, because I'm on a little rail here about Big Tech." One of the largest companies that the federal government is doing business with isPalantir.
One of Lamon's main closing arguments against Masters is that Republicans should be suspicious of him because of his libertarian leanings.
"Oh and by the way, you're not a puppet for big tech, because you are," said Lamon, prompting a murmur of agreement among the attendees.
Lamon, a self-funder, frequently emphasizes the differences in the source of their respective campaigns' largesse, while Masters has largely self-financed his own campaign.
Lamon said there was no amount of money he wouldn't spend to save his country.
In addition to his investments in Masters, the venture capitalist gave a total of fifteen million dollars to a super PAC supporting the campaign of the author of "Hillbilly Elegy"
While a lot of Republicans are aware of megadonors like the Koch brothers, Thiel has only recently emerged as one of them.
The amount of money that he has spent in Ohio and Arizona dwarfs his previous political contributions.
Masters has defended his relationship with the man. Some audience members booed when he said that the PayPal founder was the one America First billionaire.
I'm not a fan. Masters said he thought he was great. Give me my cell phone number if you know any other billionaires. You should get a candidate who can get resources.
Yard signs financed by the outside group can be seen at a number of major intersection, alongside all of the other signs competing for attention.
While Masters' own campaign has stuck with a simple, white-on-black design, the signs funded by the super PAC include an image of Masters with his family.
A website of negative attacks on Masters has been created by Lamon.
One section of the site says that's right. The same Big Tech that's censoring conservatives is funding the fake conservative campaign.
At least one endorsement has been lost because of Lamon's attacks. The man who was acting Director of National Intelligence and ambassador to Germany withdrew his endorsement of the businessman after the attacks.
Grenell compared Lamon to Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who has drawn the ire of conservatives for her criticism of Trump and her service as vice chair of the January 6 committee.
Grenell said that he had to un-endorse Jim and endorse Masters because he saw Republicans attacking Republicans.
Attendees told Insider that what they've heard about Thiel is making them pause.
Steve Zipperman is a candidate for state Senate in the 1st legislative district. The kind of guy that George Soros is, is trying to control things from outside.
Sharon told Insider that herBS detector went off at a recent dinner she and her husband had with Masters.
She said he failed to address Lamon's critique of him when he was praised.
She said it would be easy for him to reply. What he did was what a consultant would advise him to do.
Others say they've never heard of him.
Laura Stewart, a town hall attendee, said that she'd never heard of the connection between the two men. I do not know.
Pat Newbert told Insider that she had decided to support Lamon despite her friends' enthusiasm for Masters.
He must have looked into him after Trump endorsed him. Newbert said that he endorsed Dr. Oz as well. She said that she doesn't agree with many of the people that Trump supports.
She said that her decision to not support Masters was due to Lamon's broadsides against Thiel and his connection to Facebook.
She said that she didn't know why Trump was supporting Masters. They are squashing our First Amendment because of Facebook.
At that point, her husband added.
He said that he had just gotten out of jail. The truth was posted.
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