Just four days after being tapped by presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney as his running mate, Paul Ryan met with Sheldon Adelson, a major donor to Republican causes in an effort to defeat President Obama.
Ryan, a Wisconsin congressman, met Tuesday with Adelson and other major Republican donors at the casino magnate’s Venetian hotel in Las Vegas.
The New York Times reported that the private meeting was geared in part at assessing the foreign policy views of Ryan, the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Budget Committee, who is better known for his tough proposals to slash government spending.
Romney named Ryan as his vice presidential choice on Saturday in what was seen in part as a bid to consolidate grass-roots conservative support for the ticket. The Romney campaign says it picked up $3.5 million within 24 hours after Romney named Ryan on Saturday.
Adelson, perhaps the biggest single American donor to pro-Israel causes, has pledged up to $100 million to defeat Obama. The billionaire has already contributed more money to defeat Obama than anyone, according to the Times: more than $50 million, including $10 million to a pro-Romney super PAC and $10 million to Crossroads GPS, which is running millions of dollars worth of ads against the president.
That’s out of an estimate total worth of just under $25 billion.