Zuckerberg Spends $350K Touting Immigration Reform in Paul Ryan's District

Zuckerberg Spends $350K Touting Immigration Reform in Paul Ryan's District

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s lobbying outfit has launched a $350,000 ad buy to defend House Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) amid his push for comprehensive immigration reform.

Politico reports that Zuckerberg’s FWD.us-run group, Americans for a Conservative Direction, has bought up $350,000 worth of television ad airtime targeted at Ryan’s district.

“The spot from the FWD.us affiliate begins with a picture of Ryan and says, ‘Amnesty? Not a chance,’ and goes on to say the House budget chairman is looking at a ‘conservative solution’ to the issue of immigration,” Politico wrote on Thursday. “It then focuses on more muscular pieces of the reform effort such as increased border security, E-verify and items like back taxes charged to illegal immigrants already in the country. The buy runs from Friday through Sept. 3 on cable and broadcast networks.”

The scale of the ad buy matches more closely with a competitive congressional election than a typical issue advertising campaign. Ryan currently does not face any major Republican or Democratic challengers in his 2016 reelection bid.

Ryan’s friend and informal political adviser Dan Senor is an adviser to FWD.us. In a recent Huffington Post article, Senor praised Ryan’s political prowess and said he does not need to “prove anything.”

“He’s a guy who single-handedly moved the Republican Party on the third rail of American politics,” Senor said of Ryan, adding that the former vice presidential candidate has “been a leader of conservative movement politics and policy for a long time, so he has real bona fides. He doesn’t have to prove anything. He’s not trying to position himself.”

Spokespersons for Ryan did not immediately return a request for comment for this article from Breitbart News.

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