House Speaker Paul Ryan made multiple fundraising stops in the districts of several GOP lawmakers during a recess trip this week that included a tour of the Mexican border and a stop at the Dallas Police Department.
Ryan, R-Wis., attended fundraisers, roundtables and meetings with community members in Florida, Texas and California, a Ryan political team aide told the Washington Examiner.
Ryan started in South Florida attending fundraisers for the House GOP campaign arm, the National Republican Congressional Committee, before he headed to Texas for a border tour on horseback with Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, and and Rep. John Carter, R-Texas, a top lawmaker on the panel.
Ryan will be soon be tasked with trying to pass legislation to fund a border wall, promised by President Trump during his campaign, which could cost up to $14 billion.
Ryan then headed to stops in El Paso, Corpus Christie, the Dallas/Fort Worth area, Houston, and McAllen where he attended fundraisers and meetings on behalf of the lawmakers who represent those districts.
According to an aide on Ryan’s political team, Ryan by the end of this week will have have attended nine fundraising dinners and receptions and held eight meetings with supporters.
“Ryan remains dedicated and fully engaged to strengthening our House GOP majority,” the aide said.
In Dallas, Ryan visited Urban Specialists, a poverty fighting group whose founders were Ryan’s guests at the 2016 State of the Union address.
“The discussion started off with Ryan hearing from some of the Urban Specialists and hearing about their recent successes,” the Ryan aide said, which included improving the relationship between the community and the Dallas Police Department.
Ryan stopped by the department “to just thank them for the work they do and to say he was thinking about them last July and to express his sympathy for their losses.” Five officers were killed in downtown Dallas in July by a heavily armed sniper.
Ryan will also stop in Northern California this week “to meet with supporters to continue to take the Republican agenda to all parts of the country.”
Ryan’s political team announced recently that Ryan transferred $3.4 million, a record haul, to the NRCC.
