Trump plans Texas oil country donor blitz to shrink money gap with Harris

By Jennifer A. Dlouhy and Mitchell Ferman

Donald Trump is planning a fresh fundraising swing through Texas, with plans to court donors in oil country as he seeks to narrow a cash gap with Kamala Harris in the final weeks of the presidential campaign.

The itinerary includes an Oct. 2 luncheon in the Midland, Texas, area, the heart of the prolific Permian Basin, followed by a cocktail reception in Houston, according to people familiar with the events.

Among the named hosts holding the Houston reception for Trump are Jeff Hildebrand, the billionaire chief executive officer of Hilcorp Energy Co., and his wife Melinda Hildebrand, the people said. The Hildebrands, who are major donors to Trump’s political operation, did not respond to multiple messages seeking comment.

The Trump campaign did not respond to a request to comment about the fundraisers, which were first reported by the New York Times.

The events come at a critical time for Trump, as he struggles to keep up with Harris’ fundraising and is being vastly outspent by Democrats. Fueled by donations from Wall Street and Silicon Valley, Harris was able to spend an average of $7.5 million each day in August — $5 million more than Trump could muster.

The former president raised $130 million in August, less than half of the $361 million Harris raised. Trump attended fundraisers in California earlier this month, but has generally spent most of his time on the campaign trail at rallies or giving speeches, rather than meeting with donors. Running mate JD Vance has headlined several fundraisers in Trump’s stead.

Trump has increasingly looked to the oil and natural gas industry to help fill his campaign coffers, drawing on his record backing industry priorities during his first term in the White House as well as his pledges to dismantle Biden-era policies that discourage fossil-fuel production.

As president, Trump eased regulations from former President Barack Obama’s tenure that helped lower the cost of oil development. He also took steps to aid struggling oil companies after pandemic lock-downs in 2020 prompted crude prices to crash. That included intervening to help broker an agreement with OPEC+ countries to slash production and boost prices in April 2020. 

During a 2020 rally in Midland, Trump reminded voters of his efforts to salvage the industry. “When oil crashed, I got Saudi Arabia, Russia, and others to cut nearly 10 million barrels a day, and got OPEC+ and Mexico to agree to the deal,” he said at the time. “This action stabilized world oil prices that had been in a free-fall and saved millions of energy jobs, and frankly, it saved your industry.”

Lawmakers in Congress are probing Trump’s promises to oil executives earlier this year to roll back environmental regulations, during a meeting in which he asked donors to deliver $1 billion in support.