Oil and gas industry donations heavily fueling Trump for president

Donald Trump is the oil and gas industry’s undisputed top pick for the Republican presidential nomination as energy sector donors shower his candidacy with nearly 10 times the amount of money as they gave his challenger Nikki Haley.

And forget about President Joe Biden. Despite record oil production and profits during his White House tenure, industry donors have given very little — just $635,000 — to his reelection bid compared with the $7.37 million they bestowed on Trump, according to an analysis from OpenSecrets.

Oil and gas is now one of the top industries funding Trump’s 2024 run and a critical source of cash for his White House comeback bid, as other major donors — particularly in finance, private equity and venture capital — have opted instead to back his last remaining GOP rival Haley.

The staunch support from oil and gas producers wasn’t preordained. Last summer and fall, as Trump faced a crowded field of challengers, oil industry donors were sprinkling money on his rivals, including Haley, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and others. But as the year progressed and Trump’s lock on the nomination seemed more likely, donors lined up behind the former president.

Continental Resources Inc. co-founder Harold Hamm made several donations to both Haley and DeSantis last spring and summer, after saying he didn’t believe Trump could win the 2024 election. By August, he had changed his mind and cut a check to Trump’s campaign, followed by an additional $200,000 in November to Make America Great Again Inc., the super political action committee supporting the Republican frontrunner.

Trump and his allied political action committees also received contributions from other major industry donors in late 2023, including Geosouthern Energy Corp.’s George Bishop, and Tim Dunn, an oil tycoon who heads Crownquest Operating LLC. Dunn sent a $5 million check to Trump’s super PAC in December.

Other donors to Trump’s reelection effort in the fourth quarter were Kelcy Warren, chairman of Energy Transfer LP; Karen Herbst, a longtime land and minerals manager in Texas; and Kent Hance, a former member of the Texas Railroad Commission, the agency which regulates oil and gas in the state.

Haley