{"id":329058,"date":"2026-07-04T04:22:59","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T04:22:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/329058\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T04:22:59","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T04:22:59","slug":"airbnb-gives-1-million-to-byron-donalds-as-rentals-remain-a-suncoast-flashpoint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/329058\/","title":{"rendered":"Airbnb gives $1 million to Byron Donalds as rentals remain a Suncoast flashpoint"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Christian Casale | Suncoast Searchlight<\/p>\n

As Suncoast areas continue to grapple with the effect of short-term vacation rentals, the industry\u2019s most dominant player has staked a major claim in Florida’s premier 2026 election.<\/p>\n

Airbnb, the online marketplace at the center of local fights over neighborhood rentals, has contributed $1 million to the political committee supporting Republican gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds, who previously backed legislation to curb local regulation of the industry.<\/p>\n

Donalds, who has secured President Donald Trump\u2019s endorsement and amassed more than $74 million for his campaign while facing little serious competition in the Republican primary, is widely viewed as the favorite to become Florida\u2019s next governor.<\/p>\n

Airbnb funneled the money through a political committee called \u201cThe People Versus The Powerful.\u201d The group is chaired by Andy Gonzalez, Airbnb\u2019s Public Policy Lead for the Southeast and Gulf regions.<\/p>\n

On May 19, Airbnb gave $1.5 million to the committee. That same day, the committee transferred $1 million to Friends of Byron Donalds PAC.<\/p>\n

Gonzalez did not respond to requests for comment from Suncoast Searchlight. Ryan Smith, a Republican political consultant who chairs Donalds\u2019 committee, also did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

Airbnb\u2019s major donation could signal the company sees Donalds as friendly to its business. As a state representative in 2020, he called the vacation rental industry \u201ca boon to Southwest Florida,\u201d according to CBS News<\/a>. At the time, he advocated for a bill in the Florida House that would have blocked local regulations on vacation rentals.<\/p>\n

Airbnb has also sent more than $900,000 to a PAC belonging to The Southern Group, one of Tallahassee\u2019s blue-chip lobbying firms, as well as $250,000 to a duo of GOP Florida statehouse committees.<\/p>\n

The donation comes as municipalities across the Suncoast have fought to crack down on short-term rentals over the past several years, citing concerns that they exacerbate the affordable housing crisis and degrade the character of neighborhoods.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sarasota first regulated such rentals on the barrier islands in 2020, then the Coalition of City Neighborhood Associations of Sarasota successfully advocated last year to expand the ordinance citywide.<\/p>\n

Manatee County is also considering an ordinance on short-term rentals that could include a licensing process and occupancy limits.<\/p>\n

Kelly Brown, the president of CCNA, said websites like Airbnb have eroded community character by encouraging big companies to purchase homes for the sole purpose of short-term rentals, which can also raise housing prices by removing the number of homes on the market.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about the outside influence of an industry that has come in and bought up houses, effectively destroying a community,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n

The debate has intensified nationwide as studies have shown that concentrations of short-term rentals can modestly increase rents and home prices by reducing the supply of housing available to long-term tenants.<\/p>\n

In Sarasota alone, there are an estimated 9,325 active short-term rental listings, according to AirDNA, a data and analytics company for the industry. Across the North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton metropolitan area, the number of available short-term rental listings has increased by about 7.6% over the past two years, AirDNA data show.<\/p>\n

The Friends of Byron Donalds PAC has collected more than $74 million to support the congressman\u2019s gubernatorial ambitions, largely from billionaires and corporate interests. Its largest contributors include:<\/p>\n

$7.5 million from Jeff Yass, the billionaire co-founder of Susquehanna International Group and an advocate for charter and private schooling
\n$4 million from gambling interests such as the Seminole Tribe of Florida, DraftKings and FanDuel
\n$2 million from Richard Uihlein, the billionaire CEO of Uline, a major shipping and distribution company
\n$1.5 million from The GEO Group, a private prison operator
\n$1.2 million from Thomas Peterffy, the chairman of Interactive Brokers
\n$1 million from NextEra Energy, the parent company of Florida Power & Light
\n$1 million from Steve Wynn, a billionaire casino magnate<\/p>\n

This story was produced by Suncoast Searchlight, a nonprofit newsroom of the Community News Collaborative serving Sarasota, Manatee and DeSoto counties. Learn more at suncoastsearchlight.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by Christian Casale | Suncoast Searchlight As Suncoast areas continue to grapple with the effect of short-term vacation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329059,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[49418,548,49419,8052,49420,8600,202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-329058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-advertise","tag-advertising","tag-banner-ad","tag-bradenton","tag-bradenton-advertising","tag-purchase","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329058\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}