Harold Hamm
Net Worth: 18.5 billion (Forbes)
- Harold Hamm is the founder and Chairman of Continental Resources, an oil and gas company that is a prolific fracker in North Dakota’s Bakken Shale.
- Hamm was a major campaign donor to the Trump campaign, personally contributing $4.3 million to Trump PACs and helping to raise money from the industry. Hamm organized the infamous meeting at Mar-a-Lago between Trump and oil industry executives where Trump asked for $1 billion in campaign contributions while promising to roll back environmental regulations.
- According to reporting from the Washington Post, Hamm’s policy “demands” included “opening up more federal lands to drilling, easing the Endangered Species Act and curbing numerous regulations at the Environmental Protection Agency.” He also lobbied Trump to choose Doug Burgum, now the Interior Secretary, as his Vice President.
- Hamm initially called for Trump to drop out of the Republican primary in favor of Ron DeSantis or Nikki Haley. Hamm was reportedly upset that Trump ignored a request to pardon an associate of Hamm’s during his first term.
- Harold Hamm is the founder and Chairman of Continental Resources, an oil and gas company that is a prolific fracker in North Dakota’s Bakken Shale.
- In 2024, Propublica reported that Continental Resources opted out of Oklahoma’s voluntary fund to clean up orphaned oil wells. By opting out, Continental Resources received nearly $1.6 million over 7 years in refunds from the state. 76 oil companies in Oklahoma opted out, resulting in $11 million returned to the companies that could have cleaned up 1,500 orphaned wells.
- From 2006-2013, there were 11 blowouts at oil wells operated by Continental Resources in North Dakota, resulting in hundreds of thousands of gallons of spilled oil and wastewater. In one incident, three contract workers were severely burned. In all, Continental reported 937 spills and environmental incidents and 1.6 million gallons of spillage over the 7 year period, more than any other oil company in the state.
For more information, see the Revolving Door Project’s Billionaires in Trump World tracker.
Image Credit: “Harold Hamm 2012 Shankbone” by david_shankbone is licensed under CC BY 2.0.