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Trump Extracts Campaign Cash in Texas Oil Fields

Steve Herman

   WHITE HOUSE - On a visit to Texas less than 100 days before this year's
   election, U.S. President Donald Trump promoted his energy policies,
   warning that the state's oil and gas industry would be destroyed if his
   rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, was elected.

   "The radical left," Trump said Wednesday, "is fighting to abolish
   American energy, destroy the oil and gas industries and wipe out your
   jobs."

   Texas ranks highest among all 50 U.S. states in the energy sector in
   terms of employment and total production. But the industry has been hit
   hard recently by low prices and the coronavirus pandemic.

   The president made his remarks to employees of Double Eagle Energy, a
   midsize crude oil and natural gas company in Midland in the hot and
   dusty Permian Basin.

   "There's a huge overlap between workers in the energy industry here in
   Texas and his political base of support," said Brendan Steinhauser, a
   Republican political consultant in Austin.

   Earlier in the day at a pair of political events in Odessa, Trump
   raised $7 million in campaign contributions at a time when opinion
   polls show a narrower-than-expected race against Biden in Texas, a
   must-win state for the president.

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