{"id":381139,"date":"2026-08-25T23:48:36","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T23:48:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/381139\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T23:48:36","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T23:48:36","slug":"who-is-bryan-avila-byron-donalds-running-mate-nbc-6-south-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/381139\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is Bryan Avila, Byron Donalds\u2019 running mate? \u2013 NBC 6 South Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Republican Rep. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/byrondonalds\/?hl=en\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Byron Donalds<\/a> won Florida\u2019s Republican primary for governor and, days later, announced his running mate: state Sen. Bryan Avila of Hialeah.<\/p>\n<p>Avila represents <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flsenate.gov\/Senators\/s39?pref=full\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">District 39 in the Florida Senate<\/a>, which covers parts of western and northwestern Miami-Dade, including Hialeah, Hialeah Gardens and Miami Lakes.<\/p>\n<p>Before his election to the Senate in 2022, Avila served eight years in the Florida House of Representatives, where he rose to Speaker Pro Tempore, a leadership role that allowed him to preside over House sessions in the speaker\u2019s absence.<\/p>\n<p>In the Senate, Avila has chaired the Finance and Tax Committee and served as vice chair of the Transportation Committee.<\/p>\n<p>In 2026, Avila sponsored bills dealing with property insurance (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.flsenate.gov\/Session\/Bill\/2026\/832\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">SB 832<\/a>), data centers (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.flsenate.gov\/Session\/Bill\/2026\/484\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">SB 484<\/a>), and technology education and artificial intelligence (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.flsenate.gov\/Session\/Bill\/2026\/1694\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">SB 1694<\/a>), among other issues.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1302\" height=\"748\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Sen-Bryan-Avila-in-campaing-2.png\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" style=\"object-fit:cover\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>More recently, Avila played a key role in a proposal (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.flsenate.gov\/Session\/Bill\/2026F\/2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">SJR 2-F<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flsenate.gov\/Session\/Bill\/2026F\/1F\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">HJR 1-F<\/a>) aimed at cutting property taxes for Florida homeowners. The measure would exempt up to $250,000 of a primary home\u2019s value from certain local property taxes, without affecting taxes that fund schools.<\/p>\n<p>Florida voters will decide in November whether to approve the constitutional change.<\/p>\n<p>Avila\u2019s selection as Donalds\u2019 running mate follows months of involvement in his campaign. Since September 2025, Avila has served as a co-chair of <a href=\"https:\/\/byrondonalds.com\/vets\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Veterans for Byron<\/a>, a coalition formed to rally veteran support for Donalds\u2019 campaign for governor.<\/p>\n<p>In May 2026, Avila also joined Donalds in Hialeah for the launch of <a href=\"https:\/\/byrondonalds.com\/latinos-for-byron\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Latinos for Byron<\/a>, a campaign effort aimed at Hispanic voters.<\/p>\n<p>Avila is married to Cindy Gil, and they have two children.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Republican Rep. Byron Donalds won Florida\u2019s Republican primary for governor and, days later, announced his running mate: state&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":381140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[139277,225,227,226],"class_list":["post-381139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-decision-2026","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381139","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=381139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}