Tech

PayPal co-founder remains major Ron Paul supporter

Josh Peterson Tech Editor
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Ron Paul’s campaign is receiving financial support from Silicon Valley tech visionaries, including PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel. The billionaire venture capitalist donated nearly a million dollars to Endorse Liberty, the pro-Ron Paul super PAC disclosed Tuesday.

Endorse Liberty — prior to officially filing with the Federal Election Commission — published its donor list, which revealed that Thiel was responsible for a significant chunk of the super PAC’s wealth.

Thiel, a libertarian activist who has written the widely read essays “What Happened to the Future? We Wanted Flying Cars, Instead We Got 140 Characters” and “The End of the Future,” was an early and significant investor in Facebook.

Thiel also endorsed Paul’s 2008 presidential bid.

The organization’s independent expenditures, totaling $3.4 million, were primarily online advertising buys with various social networks and search engines, including Google, Facebook and StumbleUpon — and for video production related to its outreach efforts on YouTube.

Thiel donated $900 thousand toward Endorse Liberty’s efforts.

“PayPal co-founders Peter Thiel and Luke Nosek and Scott Banister, an early adviser and board member, put their support behind the Endorse Liberty Super PAC, alongside Internet advertising veteran Stephen Oskoui and entrepreneur Jeffrey Harmon, who co-founded Endorse Liberty in November,” reports Reuters.

Harmon said in a statement to TheDC that “Peter Thiel could see Mark Zuckerberg’s vision of Facebook before anyone else understood it. Peter knew that Facebook was the future and he was the first investor. I think Peter can see that Ron Paul is the future of the Republican Party.”

“While Romney and Gingrich are out pandering to voters over the age of 50, Ron Paul is winning over the youth vote, independents, Democrats, and ethnic groups — all of the demographics the GOP has struggled with for years,” said Harmon.

Endorse Liberty has spent $3,280,612 in support of Paul, in contrast to the $66,564 it has spent against former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

“Too often in this country we learn things the hard way … With its unsustainable deficits, government spending is heading down the same path. Men and women who want freedom and growth should take action. A good place to start is voting for Ron Paul,” Thiel said in a statement to Reuters.

“We think Ron Paul can win the nomination,” said Harmon. “We know he can beat Obama. We also knew when we got into this race that Ron Paul is the underdog and the only outsider in the race. Even if he doesn’t win, we are part of a movement that is one thousand times bigger than any election cycle.”

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