Chris Christie and Ted Cruz Slam Iran at Adelson Event

Billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson can made a big difference to one of their campaigns, and he cares about one issue.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie walks off stage after addressing the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at National Harbor, Maryland, outside Washington, DC on February 26, 2015.
NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images

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By Terrence Dopp

May 29, 2015 at 2:48 AM UTC

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Chris Christie and Ted Cruz -- potential rivals for the Republican presidential nomination next year -- competed for the affections of one of the party’s most prized benefactors: billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson.

Christie, the 52-year-old governor of New Jersey, and Cruz, 44, a U.S. senator from Texas, shared a table on Thursday with the mega-donor at the World Values Network’s Champions of Jewish Values Gala in Manhattan. Adelson, founder and chairman of Las Vegas Sands Corp., has a net worth of $25.9 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a daily ranking of the richest people on Earth.