Oil Tycoon Switches From Backing Trump to Other GOP Candidates

Harold Hamm of Continental Resources introduces himself at a dinner for business leaders hosted by U.S. President Donald Trump at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., on Aug. 7, 2018. Leah Millis/Reuters

Major GOP donor Harold Hamm, once a big financial backer of former President Donald Trump, has told his longtime friend that he believes other Republicans have a better shot of beating President Joe Biden in 2024, and for now is putting his money behind them.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Mr. Hamm, founder and chairman of Continental Resources, said he broke the news to Mr. Trump over a phone call in May.

“I had to be honest and forthright, as I’ve always been,” said Mr. Hamm. “I told him we’ve been friends for a long time, I wanted to continue to be friends. He was disappointed. Hopefully we can be friends in the future.”

Between 2016 and 2020, he donated $1.25 million to Mr. Trump. Mr. Hamm had advised Mr. Trump on energy matters and was even considered for a post in his administration, after first meeting at an election results watch party for Mitt Romney years prior.

He told Mr. Trump, who is far and away the frontrunner for the 2024 GOP nomination in most polls, that he should also back another candidate himself if he believed he could not beat Mr. Biden next year.

“You need someone of good character, high quality that can lead this nation,” Mr. Hamm said. “You also need somebody the independents can vote for out here, somebody that’s not going to further divide America.”

In his search for that candidate, Mr. Hamm met with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis—who currently polls at a distant second to Mr. Trump—and said is “smart as a whip.” He gave maximum donations to Mr. DeSantis’s 2024 campaign as well as that of former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. He has also supported North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and former Vice President Mike Pence.

He also encouraged Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin to run.

“You can go on and on about several of these candidates,” Mr. Hamm said. “You can’t be involved with all of them, but certainly until the process narrows down, we can support some of them.”

Mr. Hamm told the Financial Times that the events of Jan. 6, 2021, not only divided the country, but divided the Republican base.

The oil tycoon has talked to the last six presidents, and hopes to advise the next.

“I want someone who understands how important it is to have energy independence for this nation,” Mr. Hamm said.

‘Kingmaker’

In an interview with Financial Times, Mr. Hamm further explained that he had advised Mr. Trump to drop his presidential bid and become a “kingmaker, a role for him to be very influential.”

“I know he wasn’t happy,” Mr. Hamm said. “That’s all I can do. How seriously he takes that recommendation, I don’t know.”

He clarified that he wouldn’t refuse to back Mr. Trump if he became the party’s nominee.

“I will support anyone who’s running against Joe Biden. Or [California Gov.] Gavin Newsom, or any other extreme-left candidate they can drum up.”

He saw the fact that Mr. Trump would only have four years to “undo the damage of the Biden administration” as a big obstacle.

“You need somebody that could be there for eight years,” he said.

Optimism About Shale

Shale is expected to reach peak production this decade, and Mr. Hamm is a shale pioneer, tapping into North Dakota’s Bakken shale region when others thought the idea was crazy. It made him a billionaire.

“The future is bright,” he said. “I look at it as an industry that is exciting, a lot of adventure, has a lot of potential for making great wealth.”

The youngest of 13 children, Mr. Hamm was born to tenant farmers who “didn’t even own the land where we lived” and picked cotton from age 5. He recently wrote a book about his journey, in part “to encourage the next barefooted country boy to imagine that he could do something equally as good.”

His book “Game Changer“ is primarily about Mr. Hamm’s efforts in Washington, and has the subtitle ”Our 50-year mission to secure America’s energy independence.”

Mr. Hamm has advised presidents and policymakers on energy, and details his struggles and successes in the memoir.

Notably, the Biden administration hasn’t called on Mr. Hamm.

“When the Biden administration was panicking about gasoline prices, did they call me? No,” he wrote in the book. “They called Maduro in Venezuela, flew to Saudi Arabia, sent a fax to Iran and forwarded a purchase order to Putin. They would rather talk to an ayatollah in Iran than a Harold Hamm, American oil and gas producer.”