Occidental's coal interests were represented for many years by attorney and former U.S. Senator Albert Arnold Gore, Sr., among others. Gore, who had a longtime close friendship with Hammer, became the head of the subsidiary Island Creek Coal Company, upon his election loss in the Senate. Much of Occidental's coal and phosphate production was in Tennessee, the state Gore represented in the Senate, and Gore owned shares in the company. Former Vice President Albert Arnold Gore, Jr. received much criticism from environmentalists, when the shares passed to the estate after the death of Albert Gore Sr., and Albert Gore Jr. was a son and the executor of the estate.[28][29] Albert Gore Jr. did not exercise control over the shares, which were eventually sold when the estate closed.[30][31]

Hammer was very fond of Albert Gore Jr., and in 1984 under Hammer's guidance Gore Jr. sought Tennessee's senate office previously held by Howard Baker. Hammer supposedly promised Gore Sr. that he could make his son the president of the United States. It was under Hammer's encouragement and support that Gore Jr. sought the Democratic Party presidential nomination in 1988.[32][33]