Simcha, people meet with gedolim all the time. When i was in eretz yisroel, i did too, and i wasn’t even running for office!
It’s pretty easy…why wouldn’t they have met? I think it goes without saying.
In addition, i can’t imagine a scenario where a frei person would be favored over a frum person in Israel. We need to scratch at whatever representation we can get in a hostile country.