Jason A. Thielman is an American political strategist. He served as executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) for the 2024 election cycle. He previously managed campaigns for Montana senator Steve Daines and served as his chief of staff. After leaving the committee, Thielman co-founded the public affairs firm S2R and became executive director of two federal super PACs funded by cryptocurrency-industry donors.

Early life and education

Thielman was born in Shelby, Montana, and moved with his family to Whitefish after they lost their farm and his father's implement dealership during the farm crisis of the early 1980s. He met Bob Brown, then a state legislator, as a freshman at Whitefish High School, where Brown taught world history and coached debate. Thielman volunteered on Brown's 1992 U.S. Senate campaign and served as a legislative page under his sponsorship.

He graduated from the University of Montana in 1998 with a bachelor's degree in finance and a minor in history. While at the university, he was elected student body president and was appointed by Governor Marc Racicot as the student member of the Montana Board of Regents of Higher Education.

Career

Early career in Montana

Thielman ran Montana's college savings trust program before serving for three years as chief deputy secretary of state under Secretary of State Bob Brown, who was elected in 2000. During the same period, Thielman chaired Forward Montana, a political action committee founded in 2001 by Republican state senator John Brueggeman to encourage young Montanans to remain in the state. In 2004, Thielman managed Brown's campaign for governor against Brian Schweitzer.

Work for Steve Daines

Thielman joined Daines's political operation in 2012, chairing his U.S. House campaign and becoming his chief of staff when Daines took office. He managed Daines's 2014 Senate campaign and remained chief of staff until 2022. In March 2016, an intoxicated man swung at Thielman at a Billings hotel after an energy conference; Montana attorney general Tim Fox intervened and held the man until police arrived.

National Republican Senatorial Committee

Daines, elected NRSC chair for the 2024 cycle, named Thielman the committee's executive director in November 2022. The following spring, Montana legislators took up a bill that would have replaced the state's partisan primary with a top-two contest for the 2024 Senate race against incumbent Jon Tester. Citing text messages it obtained, The New York Times reported that the state Senate majority leader had told fellow Republicans the bill "came from Daines" and was the "brainchild" of Thielman, and that the bill's sponsor said he had spoken with Thielman repeatedly about its progress. The bill passed the Montana Senate and was tabled in a House committee that April.

During the 2024 cycle, Thielman issued guidance to Republican Senate candidates on in vitro fertilization after the Alabama Supreme Court's embryo ruling and on campaign messaging about Kamala Harris. Late in the cycle, he publicly identified the fundraising gap between the parties as the committee's central vulnerability, and filed an affidavit in NRSC litigation over the rules governing joint fundraising advertisements.

Days before the election, The Washington Post reported that some Republican operatives had questioned the committee's concentration of spending on Montana and its overall strategy under Thielman's direction. Republicans won a 53-seat majority in November 2024, flipping four seats, among them Montana.

Post-NRSC career

In February 2025, Thielman co-founded S2R, a Washington-area public affairs firm, with former NRSC political director Tim Edson and Brock Lowrance. He was also among the founders of the American Growth Partnership, a business association launched in 2025 that offers members briefings and roundtables with Trump administration officials. In July 2026, Axios reported that Thielman was executive director of First Principles Digital and America First Digital, two Republican-aligned super PACs funded by cryptocurrency-industry donors.

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