Peter Thiel, president and founder of Clarium Capital Management LLC, speaks during the Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami, Florida, on Thursday, April 7, 2022.Eva Marie Uzcategui | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesBillionaire and Republican megadonor Peter Thiel’s $32 million investment in the 2022 midterm elections saw mixed results, as two of his former employees split U.S. Senate races that will help to decide control of the chamber. In Ohio, Republican J.D. Vance defended a GOP-held seat against Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan. While Thiel notably opted against funding Vance in the general election in the increasingly red state, his $15 million donation to a pro-Vance super PAC helped the candidate emerge from a crowded GOP primary to replace the retiring Republican Sen. Rob Portman. Vance once worked at investment firm Mithril Capital, which Thiel co-founded.Thiel instead opted to pile more money into Republican Blake Masters’ bid to unseat Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly in Arizona. Kelly beat back the challenge, NBC News projected, as he led Masters by more than 5 percentage points. With Kelly’s win, Democrats need to prevail in one of the two uncalled races in Nevada and Georgia to keep their majority. Thiel …
