Jeff Thomas

Relationship with Peter Thiel Thomas was reported to have entered a romantic relationship with billionaire investor Peter Thiel at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The relationship was described by some reports as financially unequal; Thomas referred to himself as being "kept", citing gifts such as a $300,000 car and a luxury home. Thomas said he knew Thiel supported the Republican Party and Thomas disliked that, but since his father was also a Republican who was from Texas, he felt he could understand people with opposing views. Another politician whom Thomas criticized was Blake Masters, who was anti-gay according to Thomas. Thomas's friends said that Thomas had not known Danzeisen would be present at the party. The incident was deemed humiliating and added to Thomas's stress. Puck said Thiel's circle denied that the confrontation happened.

Thomas was found dead on March 8, 2023, at the bottom of an apartment building in the Brickell neighborhood of Miami, Florida.

Thiel refused to comment on Thomas's death, saying that Thomas's family had demanded that he refrain from doing so. Thomas's stepfather, who had raised him, said that Thomas died in a complicated situation and that he knew full details about the relationship between Thomas and Thiel, having spoken to Thiel many times (before his death, Thomas said he was "honest with my family about the relationship". The Intercept comments that Thomas "spoke with several Democratic and progressive activists who are working to expose what they see as Thiel's hypocrisy", while both of Thiel's prominent candidates, Vance and Masters, "ran heavily on culture war issues, portraying themselves as fighting for an America with traditional conservative values against the libertine coastal elites." Miami New Times remarks that, to Thomas, "the relationship was at times a source of stress, and that he felt as if he was being shown off." Theodore Schleifer of Puck wrote that the anti-Thiel campaign exposed an undercurrent in modern politics in which there is an increasing tendency towards using people's private problems to achieve political goals. The Washington Free Beacon put the Thomas affair in perspective, noting that a similar strategy from researchers seemed to apply in the case of Pennsylvania's David McCormick, who was approached by a researcher who posed as a journalist.