Even if you’re Warren Buffett–billionaire investor, founder of Berkshire Hathaway, and Democratic donor–it helps to have friends in high places. Through his holding company MidAmerican Energy, Buffett is currently atttempting to purchase NV Energy, a Nevada-based energy firm, and he’s getting some big help from that state’s senior U.S. senator, Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Energy and Environmental Daily reports (subscriber content only) that Reid, who has been publicly supporting Buffett’s acquisition of NV Energy and has criticized Nevada state regulators holding up the purchase, wrote a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission requesting the agency give “close consideration” to the purchase agreement. If approved, the $5.6 billion purchase would make Buffett’s MidAmerican the nation’s “largest utility holding company.”