Thiel-backed JD Vance wins Ohio Senate seat

JD Vance won the Ohio Senate race after Peter Thiel donated $15 million to the pro-Vance super PAC Protect Ohio Values, the largest single individual donation to a Senate candidate to that point. Vance had publicly cited Curtis Yarvin in a 2021 podcast and called for firing every mid-level bureaucrat. The win demonstrated that Thiel money could elect a Yarvin-aligned candidate to federal office.